Broadband Polarization Entangled Photon Pair Generation in Type-II Parametric Down-Conversion

Masayuki Hojo, Kōichiro Tanaka

Christian Kurtsiefer, Markus Oberparleiter, Jürgen Volz +1 more

Mohammed F. Saleh, Bahaa E. A. Saleh, Malvin Carl Teich

We examine the modal, spectral, and polarization entanglement properties of photon pairs generated in a nonlinear periodically poled two-mode waveguide (one-dimensional planar or two-dimensional circular) via nondegenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Any of the possible degrees of freedom---mode number, frequency, or polarization---can be used to distinguish the down-converted photons while the others serve as attributes of entanglement. Distinguishing the down-converted photons based on their mode numbers enables us to efficiently generate spectral or polarization entanglement that is either narrowband or broadband. On the other hand, when the generated photons are distinguished by their frequencies in a type-0 process, modal entanglement turns out to be an efficient alternative to polarization entanglement. Moreover, modal entanglement in type-II down-conversion may be used to generate a doubly entangled state in frequency and polarization.

Christian Kurtsiefer, Markus Oberparleiter, Harald Weinfurter

Type-II parametric down conversion in nonlinear optical crystals has turned out to be one of the most powerful methods to generate entangled photon pairs, and even allowed a large set of experiments on foundations of quantum mechanics and recent applications in quantum communication. In this paper, we present an experimental investigation of the emission characteristics for down-converted photons in order to investigate the possibility of high brightness sources for correlated photon pairs. Furthermore, we discuss possible ways to increase the collection efficiency for polarization entangled photon pairs.

Zhi‐Yuan Zhou, Yun-Kun Jiang, Dong-Sheng Ding +1 more

The first experimental preparation is reported of an ultra-broadband continuously-tunable highly polarization-entangled photon-pair source via spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a single type-II phase-matched bulk periodically-poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) crystal. A tuning band of more than 60 nm for the down-converted photons is achieved experimentally, which covers the C+L telecom bands. The photon pair generation rate is about 1.63 × 104 (s mW nm)−1. The calculated S parameter values of CHSH inequality between 2.60 ± 0.04 (minimum) and 2.72 ± 0.07 (maximum) over the whole tunable range clearly demonstrate high entanglement of the source. In combination with the dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technique, our source could be used to enhance the transmission capacity of a communication channel in the field of quantum communication.

宋媛媛 Song Yuanyuan, 陈鼎 Chen Ding, 丛爽 Cong Shuang