IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-56436-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A tunable entangled photon-pair source based on a Van der Waals insulator

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaodan Lyu

    (Nanyang Technological University)

  • Leevi Kallioniemi

    (Nanyang Technological University)

  • Hao Hong

    (Peking Univeristy)

  • Rui Qu

    (National University of Singapore)

  • Yan Zhang

    (Nanyang Technological University)

  • Jesus Zúñiga-Perez

    (Nanyang Technological University
    Majulab, International Research Laboratory IRL 3654, CNRS, Université Côte d’Azur, Sorbonne Université, National University of Singapore Nanyang Technological University)

  • Kaihui Liu

    (Peking Univeristy)

  • Weibo Gao

    (Nanyang Technological University
    National University of Singapore
    Nanyang Technological University)

Abstract

Scalable quantum photonic devices drive the development of compact sources of entangled photons, which are pivotal for quantum communication, computing, and cryptography. In this work, we present entangled photon pair generation in rhombohedral boron nitride (r-BN), leveraging its unique optical and structural properties. Unlike conventional hexagonal boron nitride, which suffers from reduced nonlinear response due to centrosymmetric structure in even-layered stacks, r-BN features interlayer ABC stacking and maintains robust in-plane inversion symmetry. These characteristics lead to highly efficient entangled photon generation. Our system demonstrates an entangled photon pair generation rate up to 8667 Hz/(mW·mm) and offers a tunable platform for Bell state generation by simply adjusting the pump polarization, without compromising the entanglement quality or generation efficiency. The polarization entangled state is measured with a fidelity up to 94%. This advancement not only marks a significant step towards ultrathin, scalable quantum devices but also establishes r-BN as a promising candidate for on-chip integrated quantum optical applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaodan Lyu & Leevi Kallioniemi & Hao Hong & Rui Qu & Yan Zhang & Jesus Zúñiga-Perez & Kaihui Liu & Weibo Gao, 2025. "A tunable entangled photon-pair source based on a Van der Waals insulator," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-56436-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56436-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56436-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-56436-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriela Barreto Lemos & Victoria Borish & Garrett D. Cole & Sven Ramelow & Radek Lapkiewicz & Anton Zeilinger, 2014. "Quantum imaging with undetected photons," Nature, Nature, vol. 512(7515), pages 409-412, August.
    2. Yuan Liu & Yu Huang & Xiangfeng Duan, 2019. "Van der Waals integration before and beyond two-dimensional materials," Nature, Nature, vol. 567(7748), pages 323-333, March.
    3. Vitaliy Sultanov & Aljaž Kavčič & Emmanouil Kokkinakis & Nerea Sebastián & Maria V. Chekhova & Matjaž Humar, 2024. "Tunable entangled photon-pair generation in a liquid crystal," Nature, Nature, vol. 631(8020), pages 294-299, July.
    4. Qiangbing Guo & Yun-Kun Wu & Di Zhang & Qiuhong Zhang & Guang-Can Guo & Andrea Alù & Xi-Feng Ren & Cheng-Wei Qiu, 2024. "Polarization entanglement enabled by orthogonally stacked van der Waals NbOCl2 crystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Qiangbing Guo & Xiao-Zhuo Qi & Lishu Zhang & Meng Gao & Sanlue Hu & Wenju Zhou & Wenjie Zang & Xiaoxu Zhao & Junyong Wang & Bingmin Yan & Mingquan Xu & Yun-Kun Wu & Goki Eda & Zewen Xiao & Shengyuan A, 2023. "Ultrathin quantum light source with van der Waals NbOCl2 crystal," Nature, Nature, vol. 613(7942), pages 53-59, January.
    6. Li Wang & Jiajie Qi & Wenya Wei & Mengqi Wu & Zhibin Zhang & Xiaomin Li & Huacong Sun & Quanlin Guo & Meng Cao & Qinghe Wang & Chao Zhao & Yuxuan Sheng & Zhetong Liu & Can Liu & Muhong Wu & Zhi Xu & W, 2024. "Bevel-edge epitaxy of ferroelectric rhombohedral boron nitride single crystal," Nature, Nature, vol. 629(8010), pages 74-79, May.
    7. Yilin Tang & Kabilan Sripathy & Hao Qin & Zhuoyuan Lu & Giovanni Guccione & Jiri Janousek & Yi Zhu & Md Mehedi Hasan & Yoshihiro Iwasa & Ping Koy Lam & Yuerui Lu, 2024. "Quasi-phase-matching enabled by van der Waals stacking," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiaodan Lyu & Leevi Kallioniemi & Hongbing Cai & Liheng An & Ruihuan Duan & Shuin Jian Wu & Qinghai Tan & Chusheng Zhang & Ruihua He & Yansong Miao & Zheng Liu & Alexander Ling & Jesus Zúñiga-Perez & , 2025. "Boosting classical and quantum nonlinear processes in ultrathin van der Waals materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Sixu Wang & Wei Li & Chenguang Deng & Zijian Hong & Han-Bin Gao & Xiaolong Li & Yueliang Gu & Qiang Zheng & Yongjun Wu & Paul G. Evans & Jing-Feng Li & Ce-Wen Nan & Qian Li, 2024. "Giant electric field-induced second harmonic generation in polar skyrmions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Min Yue & Kenan Zhang & Mei Zhao & Yinan Wang & Dong Li & Jieyuan Liang & Biyuan Zheng & Chao Zou & Yu Ye & Peijian Wang & Lijie Zhang & Shun Wang, 2025. "2D Cd metal contacts via low-temperature van der Waals epitaxy towards high-performance 2D transistors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Yilin Tang & Kabilan Sripathy & Hao Qin & Zhuoyuan Lu & Giovanni Guccione & Jiri Janousek & Yi Zhu & Md Mehedi Hasan & Yoshihiro Iwasa & Ping Koy Lam & Yuerui Lu, 2024. "Quasi-phase-matching enabled by van der Waals stacking," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Shruti Dogra & John J. McCord & Gheorghe Sorin Paraoanu, 2022. "Coherent interaction-free detection of microwave pulses with a superconducting circuit," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Georgy A. Ermolaev & Kirill V. Voronin & Adilet N. Toksumakov & Dmitriy V. Grudinin & Ilia M. Fradkin & Arslan Mazitov & Aleksandr S. Slavich & Mikhail K. Tatmyshevskiy & Dmitry I. Yakubovsky & Valent, 2024. "Wandering principal optical axes in van der Waals triclinic materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    7. Shuangzan Lu & Deping Guo & Zhengbo Cheng & Yanping Guo & Cong Wang & Jinghao Deng & Yusong Bai & Cheng Tian & Linwei Zhou & Youguo Shi & Jun He & Wei Ji & Chendong Zhang, 2023. "Controllable dimensionality conversion between 1D and 2D CrCl3 magnetic nanostructures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Qiangbing Guo & Yun-Kun Wu & Di Zhang & Qiuhong Zhang & Guang-Can Guo & Andrea Alù & Xi-Feng Ren & Cheng-Wei Qiu, 2024. "Polarization entanglement enabled by orthogonally stacked van der Waals NbOCl2 crystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Sangyong Park & Dongyoung Lee & Juncheol Kang & Hojin Choi & Jin-Hong Park, 2023. "Laterally gated ferroelectric field effect transistor (LG-FeFET) using α-In2Se3 for stacked in-memory computing array," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Hugo Defienne & Patrick Cameron & Bienvenu Ndagano & Ashley Lyons & Matthew Reichert & Jiuxuan Zhao & Andrew R. Harvey & Edoardo Charbon & Jason W. Fleischer & Daniele Faccio, 2022. "Pixel super-resolution with spatially entangled photons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    11. Teng Tan & Zhongye Yuan & Hao Zhang & Guofeng Yan & Siyu Zhou & Ning An & Bo Peng & Giancarlo Soavi & Yunjiang Rao & Baicheng Yao, 2021. "Multispecies and individual gas molecule detection using Stokes solitons in a graphene over-modal microresonator," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    12. Shu Hu & Junyang Huang & Rakesh Arul & Ana Sánchez-Iglesias & Yuling Xiong & Luis M. Liz-Marzán & Jeremy J. Baumberg, 2024. "Robust consistent single quantum dot strong coupling in plasmonic nanocavities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    13. Junpeng Zeng & Daowei He & Jingsi Qiao & Yating Li & Li Sun & Weisheng Li & Jiacheng Xie & Si Gao & Lijia Pan & Peng Wang & Yong Xu & Yun Li & Hao Qiu & Yi Shi & Jian-Bin Xu & Wei Ji & Xinran Wang, 2023. "Ultralow contact resistance in organic transistors via orbital hybridization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Buhang Chen & Xiongzhi Zeng & Zhetong Liu & Wenlong Dong & Ding Pei & Huan Wang & Yanyan Dong & Chengjin Wu & Xiaoyin Gao & Hanbo Xiao & Han Gao & Hang Jia & Aiheng Yuan & Jinlong Du & Heng Chen & Hai, 2025. "Edge-feeding synchronous epitaxy of layer-controlled graphene films on heterogeneous catalytic substrates," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Lutao Li & Junjie Yao & Juntong Zhu & Yuan Chen & Chen Wang & Zhicheng Zhou & Guoxiang Zhao & Sihan Zhang & Ruonan Wang & Jiating Li & Xiangyi Wang & Zheng Lu & Lingbo Xiao & Qiang Zhang & Guifu Zou, 2023. "Colloid driven low supersaturation crystallization for atomically thin Bismuth halide perovskite," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    16. Leilei Ye & Xiaorong Gan & Romana Schirhagl, 2024. "Two-Dimensional MoS 2 -Based Photodetectors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-36, November.
    17. Qianlu Sun & Jiamin Lin & Pedro Ludwig Hernandez-Martine & Taotao Li & Yantong Li & Li Li & Changjin Wan & Nannan Mao & Huakang Yu & Peng Wang & Hilmi Volkan Demir & Zehua Hu & Rui Su & Weigao Xu, 2025. "Designable excitonic effects in van der Waals artificial crystals with exponentially growing thickness," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, December.
    18. Kaiyi Qian & Kai Wang & Leizhen Chen & Zhaohua Hou & Mario Krenn & Shining Zhu & Xiao-song Ma, 2023. "Multiphoton non-local quantum interference controlled by an undetected photon," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    19. Guojing Hu & Changlong Wang & Shasha Wang & Ying Zhang & Yan Feng & Zhi Wang & Qian Niu & Zhenyu Zhang & Bin Xiang, 2023. "Long-range skin Josephson supercurrent across a van der Waals ferromagnet," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-6, December.
    20. Pei-Yu Huang & Bi-Yi Jiang & Hong-Ji Chen & Jia-Yi Xu & Kang Wang & Cheng-Yi Zhu & Xin-Yan Hu & Dong Li & Liang Zhen & Fei-Chi Zhou & Jing-Kai Qin & Cheng-Yan Xu, 2023. "Neuro-inspired optical sensor array for high-accuracy static image recognition and dynamic trace extraction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-56436-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.