Sources of entangled photon pairs are a key component in both fundamental tests of quantum theory and practical applications such as quantum key distribution and quantum computing. In this work, we describe and characterize a source of polarization entangled photon pairs based on two spontaneous parametric down-conversion crystals in a Sagnac interferometer. Our source is compact and produces high-quality entangled states in a very flexible manner. The wavelengths of the photon pairs (around 810 and 1550 nm), the phase between orthogonal components of the entangled state, and the tangle of the state are all independently adjustable. In addition to presenting basic characterization data, we present experimental violations of Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt and Leggett inequalities, as well as an instance of the ``beautiful'' Bell inequality, which has not previously been tested experimentally.
Bell states are fundamental resources in quantum optics, underpinning a range of applications in quantum computation and communication. However, many experimental sources focus on generating a single Bell state, limiting their utility for protocols that require the full set of maximally entangled states. In this work, we present a polarization-entangled photon-pair source based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal integrated into a Sagnac loop interferometer. Our source initially generates one Bell state, which is then transformed into the complete set of Bell states through the application of phase and bit flips using phase plates. We characterize the entanglement quality of all generated states via two-photon interference measurements, quantum state tomography, and evaluation of the Bell parameter. Our results show spectral brightness of 0.15 kHz/mW/nm with interference visibilities of ∼98% (H/V basis) and ∼96% (A/D basis) and state fidelity of ∼0.97 across all Bell states, with all states demonstrating a clear violation of the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality (S≥2.6). This approach offers a practical solution for obtaining all four Bell states with high efficiency from a single source, which could facilitate more versatile implementations in quantum information processing.
We report a source of polarization-entangled photon pairs in the 1550-nm telecommunication band, which is based on non-collinear spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal pumped by picosecond pulses. This source is realized utilizing a polarization-based Sagnac interferometer employing a type-0 non-collinear quasi-phase-matching configuration. Polarization entanglement is verified through measurement of the polarization-correlation interference fringes with visibility >96% and by testing the experimental violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) form of Bell's inequality. The CHSH-Bell parameter S is found to be 2.72 ± 0.04, with 18 standard deviations from the statistical uncertainty.
We demonstrate pulsed operation of a bidirectionally pumped polarization Sagnac interferometric down-conversion source and its generation of narrow-band, high-visibility polarization-entangled photons. Driven by a narrow-band, mode-locked pump at 390.35 nm, the phase-stable Sagnac source with a type-II phase-matched periodically poled
KTiOPO4 crystal is capable of producing 0.01 entangled pair per pulse in a 0.15-nm bandwidth centered at 780.7 nm with 1 mW of average pump power at a repetition rate of 31.1 MHz. We have achieved a mean photon-pair generation rate of as high as 0.7 pair per pulse, at which multipair events dominate and significantly reduce the two-photon quantum-interference visibility. For low generation probability $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, the reduced visibility $V=1\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}$ is independent of the throughput efficiency and of the polarization analysis basis, which can be utilized to yield an accurate estimate of the generation rate $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. At low $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ we have characterized the source entanglement quality in three different ways: average quantum-interference visibility of 99%, the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt
S parameter of $2.739\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.119$, and quantum state tomography with 98.85% singlet-state fidelity. The narrow-band pulsed Sagnac source of entangled photons is suitable for use in quantum information processing applications such as free-space quantum key distribution.
We develop a Sagnac-type source of ultrabright, non-degenerate, polarization-entangled photon pair that is highly stable and compact simultaneously. We use a
20 mm long PPLN bulk crystal which, upon pumping continuously with
532 nm wavelength, produces polarization-entangled photon-pairs of
785 nm signal and
1651 nm idler wavelengths via the type-0 spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) process. All optical components used in the setup are off-the-shelf components, readily available commercially; hence, no custom-designed or costly multi-wavelength polarization optics are required. At the same time, long-term phase stability is achieved without any additional active stabilization; due to the geometry of our Sagnac-type design. We also report one of the highest brightness of non-degenerate polarization-entangled photon pairs available in the literature. Even with a very low pump power of
0.034 mW, we detect a coincidence rate of
(6.96±0.03)×104 entangled pairs/sec/mW (averaged over three polarization-basis measurements: H/V, D/A, and R/L basis). The source's brightness is calculated to be
(6.17±0.04)×106 entangled pairs/sec/mW for the signal line width of
0.4 nm. From the raw coincidence counts (without any background coincidence correction), the fidelity of the entangled state is measured to be
(96.72±0.01)% with a concurrence of
(94.68±0.20)%. Bell-CHSH inequality violation is reported as
S=2.71±0.06.
Abstract The polarization‐entangled photon source (PEPS) at non‐degenerated wavelengths is pivotal to connect quantum systems working at different wavelengths, with the assistance of quantum teleportation. Here, a compact Sagnac‐type photon source is designed and demonstrated, in which two photons with wavelengths at 810 and 1550 nm are highly entangled in polarization degree of freedom. The two photons are generated from a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal pumped with a 532 nm continuous‐wave laser, via type‐0 nondegenerate spontaneous parametric down‐conversion. The polarization of three lights is rotated by a single periscope, which makes the Sagnac interferometer compact and stable. The generated two photons are with high brightness of pairs/s/mW, which are highly entangled with fidelity of . The entanglement is verified by violating the Clauser‐Horne‐Shimony‐Holt inequality with . Finally, teleportation is demonstrated with this nondegenerate source, in which photonic states at 810 nm is teleported to 1550 nm with fidelity of .
Abstract We designed and implemented a novel combination of a Sagnac-interferometer with a Mach–Zehnder interferometer for a source of polarization-entangled photons. The new versatile configuration does not require multi-wavelength polarization optics, yet it performs with a good polarization quality and phase-stability over a wide wavelength range. We demonstrate the interferometer using only standard commercial optics to experimentally realize the pulsed generation of polarization-entangled photon-pairs at wavelengths of 764 nm and 1221 nm via type-I spontaneous four-wave mixing in a polarization-maintaining fiber. Polarization entanglement was verified by a polarization-correlation measurement with a visibility of 95.5% from raw coincidence counts and the violation of the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) inequality with S = 2.70 ± 0.04. The long-term phase-stability was characterized by an Allan deviation of 8° over an integration time of about 1 h with no active phase-stabilization.