Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between independent III-V on silicon waveguide integrated lasers

Abstract

The versatility of silicon photonic integrated circuits has led to a widespread usage of this platform for quantum information based applications, including Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). However, the integration of simple high repetition rate photon sources is yet to be achieved. The use of weak-coherent pulses (WCPs) could represent a viable solution. For example, Measurement Device Independent QKD (MDI-QKD) envisions the use of WCPs to distill a secret key immune to detector side channel attacks at large distances. Thus, the integration of III-V lasers on silicon waveguides is an interesting prospect for quantum photonics. Here, we report the experimental observation of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with 46\pm 2% visibility between WCPs generated by two independent III-V on silicon waveguide integrated lasers. This quantum interference effect is at the heart of many applications, including MDI-QKD. Our work represents a substantial first step towards an implementation of MDI-QKD fully integrated in silicon, and could be beneficial for other applications such as standard QKD and novel quantum communication protocols.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Hacking commercial quantum cryptography systems by tailored bright illumination
• Measurement device independent quantum key distribution over 404 km optical fibre
• Evaluation of the phase randomness of the light source in quantum key distribution systems with an attenuated laser
• Interference of short optical pulses from independent gain-switched laser diodes for quantum secure communications
• Interference between independent photonic integrated devices for quantum key distribution

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Integrated Photonic Quantum Technologies
• Boosting the secret key rate in a shared quantum and classical fibre communication system
• Spectrally-resolved Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry for Quantum-Optical Coherence Tomography
• Interference between independent photonic integrated devices for quantum key distribution