Polarization-entangled photon pairs on a silicon photonic chip
Realizing photonic circuits where photons replace electrons (circuits less sensitive to heat, with higher data-transfer rates), with one of the best sources of entangled photon pairs in semiconductors.
Previous activity: Hanna’s engineering internship at NTT Basic Research Laboratories, Japan.
At the beginning of her third year at ESPCI Paris, Hanna did a 6-month engineering internship in Japan at the telecommunications company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), one of the few companies with a research laboratory specialized in fundamental physics: the Basic Research Laboratories.
The goal was to realize photonic circuits, where photons replace electrons, making circuits less sensitive to the heat released by usual electronic processors and allowing a higher data-transfer rate. There she discovered the field of quantum nanophotonics, working on the generation of polarization-entangled pairs of photons on a silicon photonic circuit.
The project demonstrated the quality of the produced entanglement, still cited as one of the best sources of entangled photon pairs in semiconductors, and was an important contribution towards the fabrication of a commercial, telecom-compatible quantum source.
Published in Scientific Reports (Nature group), this work was very well received, as these topics are at the heart of the concerns of the photonic telecommunications community while also being of interest to fundamental physicists. The paper received the NTT BRL Director Best Paper Award in early 2013, showing the importance of this work for the company and the real technological potential of those quantum states.