Physical Review A
Spatially entangled four-photon states from a periodically poled potassium-titanyl-phosphate crystal
Alexander J. H. van der Torren, S. Cigdem Yorulmaz, Jelmer J. Renema, Martin P. van Exter, M. J. A. de Dood
Abstract
Spatial quantum correlations are an important resource for quantum imaging and future quantum technologies based on high-dimensional entanglement. We experimentally explore spatial correlations in four-photon states generated by a highly efficient parametric down-conversion process in a 2 mm long periodically poled KTP crystal. The four-photon states produced in the crystal contain a contribution due to independent double pairs produced via spontaneous pair emission and a highly correlated four-photon state produced by stimulated emission of a second photon pair. We separate this contribution and introduce a joint spatial density for stimulated pair emission. We observe a maximum visibility $\ensuremath{\chi}=0.25$ of the four-photon state for a 1.5 nm bandpass filter.