Broadband diffraction of correlated photons from crystal superlattices

Sources of broadband quantum correlated photons present a valuable resource for quantum metrology, sensing, and communication. Here, we report the generation of spectrally broadband correlated photons from frequency nondegenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a custom-designed lithium niobate superlattice. The superlattice induces a nonlinear interference, resulting in an experimentally observed comb-like emission spanning 0.060 um and 1.4 um of spectral bandwidth at 0.647 um and 3.0 um wavelengths, respectively. In addition to useful technological applications, our concept offers an interesting analogy between optical diffraction in quantum and classical optics.