Ultra-Efficient Integrated Photonic Quantum Transceiver for High-Speed Quantum Communications

Ground-to-satellite and satellite-to-satellite quantum encrypted communications, distributed sensing, and networking demand a disruptive lsquo;on-a-chiprsquo; technology that permits ultra-efficient, high-speed entangled-photon generation and single-photon detection packaged to provide low size, weight, power, and cost.nbsp; Building on the success of our Phase I program, this Phase II will develop and demonstrate a quantum photonics transceiver with plug-and-play modules comprising a time-bin entangled-photon pair generator, time-bin analyzers, and single-photon detector arrays, all operating at room temperature. The program integrates technology developed by the University of California, Santa Barbara, (UCSB) and Amethyst Research. The UCSB Team has demonstrated a lt;0.4 dB/cm loss AlGaAs-on-insulator photonics platform for entangled-photon pair generation. Signal rates gt;10 GHz/mW2 have been demonstratedmdash;at least 100X faster than all other approaches and 10,000X faster than silicon integrated-photonic sources. Waveguide-integrated superconducting single-photon detectors have also been demonstrated with sub-40 ps timing jitter, sub-milli-Hertz dark count rates, unity quantum efficiency, and -40 dB crosstalk. The Amethyst team has demonstrated InGaAs and GaSb based single-photon avalanche detectors (SPADs) capable of gt;100 MHz bandwidth at 250 K by using gating and proprietary bulk defect passivation techniques. By integrating these source and detector technologies, the program will deliver a high-speed quantum transceiver with an entangled-photon source and on-chip photonic conditioning components (transmitter) and photonic interferometric circuits with waveguide-integrated single-photon detectors (receiver). This lsquo;on-a-chiprsquo; quantum transceiver will be capable of uncompromised #39;qubit#39; detection and demonstrate a time-bin entangled-pair QKD transceiver with plug-and-play receiver, transmitter, and detector modules at TRL 6.