English

Quantum frequency comb with pump-selectable bin pairing and extraction-aware loading in a lithium niobate microresonator

Optics 2026-06-26 v1

Abstract

Integrated quantum photonics requires bright, high-fidelity photon-pair sources capable of spectral multiplexing, correlation control, and circuit-compatible extraction. Cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) enhances pair generation, but triply resonant operation imposes stringent pump-signal-idler spectral-alignment constraints. Moreover, the trade-off between intrinsic generation and coincidence-to-accidental ratio (CAR) does not capture the usable output flux, which depends on photon extraction. Here, we demonstrate a single-pass-pumped, resonator-enhanced quantum frequency comb (QFC) source based on a periodically poled lithium niobate photonic-crystal Fabry-Peˊ\'erot microresonator. The device yields intrinsic and loaded brightnesses of 69.9 and 1.88 MHz/μ\muW, respectively, and a maximum CAR of 16,000. Frequency-resolved measurements reveal 461 cavity-defined bins spanning 1495-1570 nm, and loaded spectral brightness approaching 4.29×\times109{}^9 pairs/(s\cdotmW\cdotnm). In particular, tuning the single-pass pump deterministically selects correlated frequency-bin pairings within the fixed QFC grid while preserving brightness and pairwise coincidence rates. We further separate intrinsic generation from output photon-pair flux, revealing the loaded-brightness-CAR relation. Together, pump-selectable bin pairing and extraction-aware loading point to tailored SPDC QFCs as chip-integrated nonclassical light resources for multiphoton-interference quantum simulation and programmable frequency-bin quantum information processing.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2606.27911,
  title  = {Quantum frequency comb with pump-selectable bin pairing and extraction-aware loading in a lithium niobate microresonator},
  author = {Mohamad Reza Nurrahman and Hyeon Hwang and Nuri Han and Guhwan Kim and Hong-Seok Kim and Kiwon Moon and Jung Jin Ju and Hansuek Lee and Min-Kyo Seo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.27911},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Mohamad Reza Nurrahman and Hyeon Hwang contributed equally to this work. Correspondence should be addressed to Hyeon Hwang (hyeon_hwang@kaist.ac.kr) and Min-Kyo Seo (minkyo_seo@kaist.ac.kr)

R2 v1 2026-07-22T20:11:50.546Z