We propose a novel approach for efficient generation of entangled photons, based on Cooper-pair luminescence in semiconductors, which does not require isolated emitters such as single atoms or quantum dots. We show that in bulk materials, electron-spin entanglement in Cooper pairs should not be expected to be translated into pure entangled photons despite the selection rules, due to mixing introduced by light-hole heavy-hole degeneracy. Semiconductor quantum wells, however, remove this degeneracy, allowing efficient photon entanglement generation in simple electrically-driven structures, taking advantage of the superconducting macroscopic coherence. The second-order decay of two-electron states in Cooper-pair luminescence leaves no which-path information, resulting in perfect coherence between two pathways and hence in principle, perfect entanglement. We calculate the purity of the entangled-photon state and find that it increases for larger light-hole heavy-hole energy splitting and for lower temperatures. These results provide new insights into light-matter interaction in solids and enable realization of novel quantum photonics based on matter condensates.
@article{arxiv.1307.2248,
title = {Cooper-pair based photon entanglement without isolated emitters},
author = {Alex Hayat and Hae-Young Kee and Kenneth S. Burch and Aephraim M. Steinberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.2248},
year = {2015}
}