Dr. Esmaeelpour is awarded a grant from National Science Foundation (NSF) to study nonlinear effects and their quantum correlations in few-mode and multimode fibers.
This project investigates the impact of intermodal nonlinearities on quantum entanglement in few-mode and multimode fibers. This project is both significant and innovative in that it will employ intermodal nonlinearities to generate and transmit quantum channels across various spatial modes within such fibers. By employing pumps in two different modes of the fiber, a spontaneous four-wave mixing nonlinear effect generates an entangled photon pair, each of which is in a different spatial mode traveling in different channels. The project seeks to establish theoretical and experimental platforms to investigate the underlying mechanisms of such intermodal entangled mode generation. These platforms will be utilized to examine the fundamental processes of such intermodal entanglement in fibers. Subsequent quantum correlation experiments will be performed to characterize the generated photon pairs’ quantum states. By directly generating entangled photon pairs in fiber, the coupling loss will be eliminated, and by the choice of fiber and the pump wavelengths, the Raman scattering noise can be avoided. The primary objective is to improve quantum communication over fiber by utilizing intermodal quantum entanglement in few-mode and multimode fibers which could have a transformative impact on quantum communication and sensing utilizing SDM-compatible fibers.