Waveguide networks are essential to gain control over photons on a chip-scale level, for applications in, e.g., optical communication, light routing, and even quantum simulation. Quantum simulators on a chip use highly controllable pairs of single photons to shed light onto the role of entanglement in interacting many-body systems.
We build three-dimensional waveguide networks on a chip using a commercial system for direct laser writing in a low fluorescent photoresist on a silica substrate and air cladding. Due to our capability to fabricate three-dimensional structures, we use special coupling structures, that enable addressing all input and output ports of our waveguide network through the substrate via one microscope objective simultaneously. Since the photoresist shows low fluorescence for excitation at 532 nm, we will be able to integrate single quantum emitters, such as color centers in diamond, into the waveguide, acting as integrated single quantum system.
Here we present our current arc shaped coupling structure, discuss the limits of the single mode-operation of the waveguides and show first beamsplitting devices. We analyze the contributions to the damping in our network, including the bend loss for bend radii smaller than 10 µm.
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