NSF Award
2437031
Nontechnical Description:<br/>Next-generation technologies using quantum entangled light promise a completely secure and unbreakable method of communications. Development of this new technology is critical for security in a wide range of communications including transactions conducted over the internet for national security and military communications. Current methods for generating entangled light needed for these applications, however, rely on complicated nonlinear optical generation methods and exotic materials that will be challenging to integrate into current microelectronics. Our proposed work will develop a novel method for generating quantum entangled light using materials commonly employed in microelectronics. We will demonstrate the modulation of an optical cavity using integrated phase change materials that will be needed to generate quantum-entangled light.<br/> <br/>To recruit the next generation of researchers into quantum information science and technology in both Middle Tennessee and Central Texas, the PIs will develop new outreach actives in both Nashville and Waco that will expose area high school students to the growing field of quantum information science and engineering through a new summer outreach program in Waco and expanded outreach programs in the Vanderbilt Summer Science Academy and the development of a new minor at Vanderbilt in quantum information science and engineering.<br/><br/>Technical Description:<br/>We propose to construct and study devices in which entangled light can be generated by femtosecond excitation of a phase-change material. We will build layered structures in which the phase-change material is deposited on a transparent oxide and study the optical transmission of the induced diffraction grating. We will test these devices to demonstrate the operation of the diffraction grating at near normally incident light and demonstrate modulation of the cavity in the oxide layer.<br/> <br/>The intellectual merit of this proposal is rooted in its ambition to realize in practice the intuitively appealing moving-mirror concept of the dynamical Casimir effect (DCE), using phase-change materials to provide wavelength selectivity in extracting photons from the quantum vacuum at wavelengths compatible with silicon photonics technology. This project exists intellectually at the boundaries between quantum field theory, ultrafast optical physics, and the materials science of quantum (phase-change) materials. Students engaged in this project will be trained in this emerging technological field. Success in this project will yield a novel route to creating entangled photon pairs in a way that is intrinsically compatible with silicon photonics without the need for the high-power lasers required, for example, for pair creation by parametric down conversion in nonlinear crystals. The Broader Impacts of this work will include novel outreach activities to engage the next generation of students with the emerging field of quantum information science and engineering (QISE) and encourage them to consider careers in STEM. Drawing upon the diverse populations in Central Texas and Middle Tennessee, we can use these programs to further the National Science Foundation goal of broadening and diversifying the future workforce<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
