A high-performance quantum pulse gate in thin-film lithium niobate

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate a quantum pulse gate (QPG) in thin-film lithium niobate. QPGs enable the selective manipulation and detection of temporal modes of quantum light and form the basis of numerous applications in photonic quantum technologies. To date, their widespread adaption is held back by two main limitations: restricted wavelength and polarization combinations of the involved fields and low normalized conversion efficiencies. We overcome these limitations through developing a QPG in thin-film lithium niobate. We design a waveguide geometry that provides the required dispersion properties for a highly efficient type-0 sum-frequency generation.We verify our design through mapping of the phase matching intensity, and demonstrate high-quality QPG operation by measuring a temporal-mode selectivity of (96.8$\pm$1.7)% on par with existing QPGs. Thanks to the strong confinement in thin-film lithium niobate, we succeed in demonstrating an internal conversion efficiency of (89.6$\pm$0.1)% for a pump power of only 20mW in front of our sample. This yields a lower-bound estimate for the normalized conversion efficiency of (1810$\pm$10)$\mathrm{W}^{-1}\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$, three orders of magnitude higher than in previous QPGs. Our results establish thin-film lithium niobate as ideal platform for high-performance QPGs and are a major step towards practical QPGs for photonic quantum technologies.