Quantum Photonics research at Unipv has been mainly focused on the development of integrated, silicon based sources of states of light useful for quantum technologies, in particular entangled photon pairs and single photon states. This research activity is done in collaboration with the Physics Department of Unipv. Among our main results is the demonstration that the photon pairs emitted by ring resonators are indeed entangled, reaching the longstanding goal of a source of entangled photons which is microscopic, bright and integrated on a silicon chip. This result was featured by 35 different media outlets with an estimated audience of over 26 million.
Recently we also started to develop artificial intelligence algorithms to be run on quantum computers. We have recently demonstrated a quantum artificial neuron, the basic building block of neural networks, and are developing neural networks to be fully run on quantum computers.
These activities are performed in collaboration with several private firms, including ST Microelectronics, IBM and CEA LETI.
Current Funding:
National Interuniversity Consortium for the Physical Sciences of Matter (CNISM) "Photonic crystal polaritons for entangled photon generation" (36 months project, total financing about 250 keuros)
- Alma Mater Ticinensis foundation project "Semiconductor devices for entangled photon pair generation" (24 months project, total financing 70 keuros)
- Italian Ministry of Research FIRB project "Nonlinear and quantum optics in photonics nano structures" (36 months project, total financing about 360 keuros).
- University of Pavia Blue Sky Research “Quantum Information Technologies with multiple degrees of freedom” (24 months project, total financing 60 keuros)
- "Micrometer-scale integrated silicon source of time-energy entangled photons”, Davide Grassani, Stefano Azzini, Marco Liscidini, Matteo Galli, Michael J Strain, Marc Sorel, JE Sipe, Daniele Bajoni, Optica 2, 88 (2015)
- "Ultra-low power generation of twin photons in a compact silicon ring resonator”, Stefano Azzini, Davide Grassani, Michael J Strain, Marc Sorel, Lukas G Helt, JE Sipe, Marco Liscidini, Matteo Galli, Daniele Bajoni, Optics express 20, 23100-23107 (2012)
- "An artificial neuron implemented on an actual quantum processor”, Francesco Tacchino, Chiara Macchiavello, Dario Gerace, Daniele Bajoni, npj Quantum Information 5, 1-8 (2019).
-"Integrated sources of photon quantum states based on nonlinear optics”, Lucia Caspani, Chunle Xiong, Benjamin J Eggleton, Daniele Bajoni, Marco Liscidini, Matteo Galli, Roberto Morandotti, David J Moss, Light: Science & Applications 6, e17100-e17100 (2017)
-"Integrated source of spectrally filtered correlated photons for large-scale quantum photonic systems”, Nicholas C Harris, Davide Grassani, Angelica Simbula, Mihir Pant, Matteo Galli, Tom Baehr-Jones, Michael Hochberg, Dirk Englund, Daniele Bajoni, Christophe Galland. Physical Review X 4, 041047 (2014).
