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Mid-infrared quantum light sources hold broad application prospects in fields such as gas sensing and infrared thermal imaging. However, currently used mid-infrared quantum entanglement light sources primarily rely on bulk periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystals, which suffer from limitations in both brightness and integration. This paper proposes a theoretical scheme based on lithium niobate thin films utilizing a 1556.9 nm pump to generate entangled photon pairs with a central wavelength of 3113.8 nm. Through optimized waveguide structure and periodic polarization design, Type-II phase matching and group velocity matching are achieved. This enables transverse electric (TE)-polarized pump input to downconvert to generate photon pairs with TE and transverse magnetic (TM) polarization. Furthermore, by combining a domain arrangement algorithm for customized design of the PPLN waveguide’s polarization direction, precise phase matching is achieved, yielding a quantum light source with a purity as high as 0.999 and a brightness reaching 6.18 × 106 cps/mW, representing a three-order-of-magnitude enhancement over bulk PPLN crystal sources. This work offers a promising solution for realizing high-brightness, high-purity on-chip quantum light sources in the mid-infrared band.
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Keywords:
- Lithium niobate (LN) waveguide /
- poling period design /
- mid infrared (MIR) band /
- quantum light source
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