@article{66877,
  abstract     = {{Integrated photon-pair sources, providing scalability solutions, are crucial for large-scale realizations of quantum photonic technologies. Their traditional fabrication techniques, such as etching, are often complex, require long development cycles, and are resource inefficient in case of fabrication imperfections or failures. The two-photon polymerization (2PP) technique can offer a rapid, efficient, and reproducible alternative for the fabrication of integrated photonic devices. Here, we demonstrate an integrated photon-pair source based on a 2PP-defined strip-loaded waveguide on a periodically poled thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform. The device generates photon pairs through type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), employing first-order quasi-phase matching (QPM) with TM-polarized excitation light. The device achieves an on-chip pair generation rate of 4.357 MHz and a coincidence-to-accidental ratio (CAR) of ∼404. To prove the flexibility and versatility of the fabrication technique, the waveguides were erased from the LN substrate and reprinted, reaching comparable performance. This work demonstrates the potential of 2PP as a rapid production technique for high-performance integrated photon-pair sources, offering a practical solution to the limitations of traditional fabrication techniques and showcasing both reproducibility of the fabrication and the reusability of the substrate.}},
  author       = {{Sewidan, Muhamed A. and Rittmeier, Alexandra and Bollmers, Laura and Babel, Silia and Chatzizyrli, Elisavet and Duran Gomez, Juan S. S. and Padberg, Laura and Eigner, Christof and Silberhorn, Christine and Bremner, Douglas and Wienke, Andreas and Kracht, Dietmar and Hinkelmann, Moritz and Kues, Michael}},
  issn         = {{1094-4087}},
  journal      = {{Optics Express}},
  number       = {{16}},
  publisher    = {{Optica Publishing Group}},
  title        = {{{High-performance photon-pair source using a two-photon-polymerized strip-loaded lithium niobate waveguide}}},
  doi          = {{10.1364/oe.596879}},
  volume       = {{34}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}

@article{63091,
  abstract     = {{We present the design and characterization of a guided-wave, bright, and highly frequency non-degenerate parametric down-conversion (PDC) source in thin-film lithium niobate. The source generates photon pairs with wavelengths of 815 nm and 1550 nm, linking the visible wavelength regime with telecommunication wavelengths. We confirm the high quality of the generated single photons by determining a value for the heralded second-order correlation function as low as g_h^(2)=(6.7+/-1.1)*10^8-3). Furthermore, we achieve a high spectral brightness of 0.44·10pairs/(smWGHz) which is two orders of magnitude higher than sources based on weakly guiding waveguides. The shape of the PDC spectrum and the strong agreement between the effective and nominal bandwidth highlight our high fabrication quality of periodically poled waveguides. The good agreement between the measured and simulated spectral characteristics of our source demonstrates our excellent understanding of the PDC process. Our result is a valuable step towards practical and scalable quantum communication networks as well as photonic quantum computing.}},
  author       = {{Babel, Silia and Bollmers, Laura and Roeder, Franz and Ridder, Werner and Golla, Christian and Köthemann, Ronja and Reineke, Bernhard and Herrmann, Harald and Brecht, Benjamin and Eigner, Christof and Padberg, Laura and Silberhorn, Christine}},
  issn         = {{1094-4087}},
  journal      = {{Optics Express}},
  number       = {{25}},
  publisher    = {{Optica Publishing Group}},
  title        = {{{Ultrabright, two-color photon pair source based on thin-film lithium niobate for bridging visible and telecom wavelengths}}},
  doi          = {{10.1364/oe.571605}},
  volume       = {{33}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

@article{54668,
  abstract     = {{Samples of dielectric optical waveguides of rib or strip type in thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) technology are characterized with respect to their optical loss using the Fabry-Pérot method. Attributing the losses mainly to sidewall roughness, we employ a simple perturbational procedure, based on rigorously computed mode profiles of idealized channels, to estimate the attenuation for waveguides with different cross sections. A single fit parameter suffices for an adequate modelling of the effect of the waveguide geometry on the loss levels.}},
  author       = {{Hammer, Manfred and Babel, Silia and Farheen, Henna and Padberg, Laura and Scheytt, J. Christoph and Silberhorn, Christine and Förstner, Jens}},
  issn         = {{1094-4087}},
  journal      = {{Optics Express}},
  keywords     = {{tet_topic_waveguide}},
  number       = {{13}},
  pages        = {{22878}},
  publisher    = {{Optica Publishing Group}},
  title        = {{{Estimation of losses caused by sidewall roughness in thin-film lithium niobate rib and strip waveguides}}},
  doi          = {{10.1364/oe.521766}},
  volume       = {{32}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}

@article{45850,
  abstract     = {{Interference between single photons is key for many quantum optics experiments and applications in quantum technologies, such as quantum communication or computation. It is advantageous to operate the systems at telecommunication wavelengths and to integrate the setups for these applications in order to improve stability, compactness and scalability. A new promising material platform for integrated quantum optics is lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI). Here, we realise Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference between telecom photons from an engineered parametric down-conversion source in an LNOI directional coupler. The coupler has been designed and fabricated in house and provides close to perfect balanced beam splitting. We obtain a raw HOM visibility of (93.5 ± 0.7) %, limited mainly by the source performance and in good agreement with off-chip measurements. This lays the foundation for more sophisticated quantum experiments in LNOI.}},
  author       = {{Babel, Silia and Bollmers, Laura and Massaro, Marcello and Luo, Kai Hong and Stefszky, Michael and Pegoraro, Federico and Held, Philip and Herrmann, Harald and Eigner, Christof and Brecht, Benjamin and Padberg, Laura and Silberhorn, Christine}},
  issn         = {{1094-4087}},
  journal      = {{Optics Express}},
  keywords     = {{Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics}},
  number       = {{14}},
  publisher    = {{Optica Publishing Group}},
  title        = {{{Demonstration of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference in an LNOI directional coupler}}},
  doi          = {{10.1364/oe.484126}},
  volume       = {{31}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}