We demonstrate quasi-phase-matched frequency conversion in a chip-integrated lithium niobate microring resonator, whose normalized efficiency reaches $230,000\%/\mathrm{W}$ or ${10}^{-6}$ per single photon.

Quantum photon sources of high rate, brightness, and purity are increasingly desirable as quantum information systems are quickly scaled up and applied to many fields. Using a periodically poled lithium niobate microresonator on chip, we demonstrate photon-pair generation at high rates of 8.5 and 36.3 MHz using only 3.4 and $13.4\mu \mathrm{W}$ pump power, respectively, marking orders of magnitude improvement over the state of the art, across all material platforms. These results constitute the first direct measurement of the device’s giant single photon nonlinearity. The measured coincidence to accidental ratio is well above 100 at those high rates and reaches $14682\pm 4427$ at a lower pump power. The same chip enables heralded single-photon generation at tens of megahertz rates, each with low autocorrelation $g_H^{(2)}(0)=0.008$ and 0.097 for the microwatt pumps, which marks a new milestone. Such distinct performance, facilitated by the chip device’s noiseless and giant optical nonlinearity, will contribute to the forthcoming pervasive adoption of quantum optical information technologies.

Chip-integrated nonlinear photonics holds the key for advanced optical information processing with superior performance and novel functionalities. Here, we present an optimally mode-matched, periodically poled lithium niobate nanowaveguide for efficient parametric frequency conversions on chip. Using a 4-mm nanowaveguide with subwavelength mode confinement, we demonstrate second harmonic generation with efficiency over $2200\%~W^{-1}cm^{-2}$, and broadband difference frequency generation over a 4.3-THz spectral span. These allow us to generate correlated photon pairs over multiple frequency channels via spontaneous parametric down conversion, all in their fundamental spatial modes, with a coincidence to accidental ratio as high as 600. The high efficiency and dense integrability of the present chip devices may pave a viable route to scalable nonlinear applications in both classical and quantum domains.

Active imagers capable of reconstructing 3-dimensional (3D) scenes in the presence of strong background noise are highly desirable for many sensing and imaging applications. A key to this capability is the time-resolving photon detection that distinguishes true signal photons from the noise. To this end, quantum parametric mode sorting (QPMS) can achieve signal to noise exceeding by far what is possible with typical linear optics filters, with outstanding performance in isolating temporally and spectrally overlapping noise. Here, we report a QPMS-based 3D imager with exceptional detection sensitivity and noise tolerance. With only 0.0006 detected signal photons per pulse, we reliably reconstruct the 3D profile of an obscured scene, despite 34-fold spectral-temporally overlapping noise photons, within the 6 ps detection window (amounting to 113,000 times noise per 20 ns detection period). Our results highlight a viable approach to suppress background noise and measurement errors of single photon imager operation in high-noise environments.

High complexity, dense integrated nanophotonic circuits possessing strong non-linearities are desirable for a breadth of applications in classical and quantum optics. In this work, we study phase matching via modal engineering in lithium niobate (LN) waveguides and microring resonators on chip for second harmonic generation (SHG). By carefully engineering the geometry dispersion, we observe a 26% W⁻¹ cm⁻² normalized efficiency for SHG in a waveguide with submicron transverse mode confinement. With similar cross-sectional dimensions, we demonstrate a phase matched microring resonator with 10 times enhancement on SHG. Our platform is capable of harnessing the strongest optical nonlinear and electro-optic effects in LN on chip with unrestricted planar circuit layouts. It offers opportunities for dense and scalable integration of efficient photonic devices with low loss and high nonlinearity.

Thin-film lithium-niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) has emerged as a superior integrated-photonics platform for linear, nonlinear, and electro-optics. Here we combine quasi-phase-matching, dispersion engineering, and tight mode confinement to realize nonlinear parametric processes with both high efficiency and wide wavelength tunability. On a millimeter-long, Z-cut LNOI waveguide, we demonstrate efficient ( 1900 ± 500 % W − 1 c m − 2 ) and highly tunable ( − 1.71 n m / K ) second-harmonic generation from 1530 to 1583 nm by type-0 quasi-phase-matching. Our technique is applicable to optical harmonic generation, quantum light sources, frequency conversion, and many other photonic information processes across visible to mid-IR spectral bands.