Photon entanglement has appeared to play a crucial role in the foundation of quantum physics and in the ever-increasing requirements of quantum information processing, quantum communication, quantum sensing and quantum computing. Thus, the industrial development and the characterization of practical entangled photon sources at telecom wavelengths are key element for the deployment of emerging quantum applications, such as Quantum Key Distribution. The photon source is based on a 775 nm pumped type II Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate wave guide (PPLN_WG) designed for generation of orthogonally polarized photon pairs at 1550 nm. Picometer tunability of the converted central wavelength is achieved by using an accurate temperature control of both the PPLN_WG and the laser diode. All optical and electronics elements are embedded in a compact module. This practical photon source is driven by a USB communication port compatible with computer. The main characteristics of the photon source, Coincidence-to-Accidental-Ratio (CAR), brightness, bi-photon spectrum, heralded efficiency, purity, and indistinguishability are measured by using integrated optical benches and a 2-channels very-low-noise InGaAs single photon avalanche counters (G-SPAD). The proposed photon source measurements protocol is also available for the characterization of other photon sources technologies, such as for the Quantum Dots and semiconductor photon sources. We performed two experimental Bell inequality violations by creating polarization entanglement or by using the natural frequency entanglement of our source. Violation by more than five standard deviations Bell inequalities with our setups demonstrate that our photon source is a promising tool for the realization of various distances quantum information experiments.
Photon entanglement has appeared to play a crucial role in the foundation of quantum physics and in the ever-increasing requirements of quantum information processing, quantum communication, quantum sensing and quantum computing. Thus, the industrial development and the characterization of practical entangled photon sources at telecom wavelengths are key element for the deployment of emerging quantum applications, such as Quantum Key Distribution. The photon source is based on a 775 nm pumped type II Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate wave guide (PPLN_WG) designed for generation of orthogonally polarized photon pairs at 1550 nm. Picometer tunability of the converted central wavelength is achieved by using an accurate temperature control of both the PPLN_WG and the laser diode. All optical and electronics elements are embedded in a compact module. This practical photon source is driven by a USB communication port compatible with computer. The main characteristics of the photon source, Coincidence-to-Accidental-Ratio (CAR), brightness, bi-photon spectrum, heralded efficiency, purity, and indistinguishability are measured by using integrated optical benches and a 2-channels very-low-noise InGaAs single photon avalanche counters (G-SPAD). The proposed photon source measurements protocol is also available for the characterization of other photon sources technologies, such as for the Quantum Dots and semiconductor photon sources. We performed two experimental Bell inequality violations by creating polarization entanglement or by using the natural frequency entanglement of our source. Violation by more than five standard deviations Bell inequalities with our setups demonstrate that our photon source is a promising tool for the realization of various distances quantum information experiments.
The frequency entangled photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) possess wide applications in quantum optics and relevant fields.To facilitate the practical quantum information technologies,particularly in optical fiber links,a frequency entangled source at telecommunication wavelength with features of compactness,portability,high efficiency and miniaturization is highly desired.In this paper,we report the experimental generation of a miniaturized frequency entangled source in telecommunication band from a 10 mm-long type-Ⅱ periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide pumped by a 780 nm distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser diode.The frequency entangled photon pairs generated by SPDC possess wide applications in quantum optics and relevant fields.When the DBR laser diode is driven by a current of 170 mA at a temperature controlled to 20℃,the output power is measured to be 70.4 mW with a central wavelength of 780.585 nm.Under this pump,the orthogonally-polarized photon pairs are generated and output from the PPLN waveguide.After filtering out the remaining pump by three high-performance long-pass filters mounted on an adjustable U-type fiber bench,the photon-pair generation rate,spectral and temporal properties of the generated frequency entangled source are measured.The results show that the generation rate of the photon pairs,after being corrected for the detection efficiencies of the single photon detectors and the optical losses,is achieved to be 1.86×107 s-1 at a pump power of 44.9 mW (coupled into the waveguide).Optimizing the working temperature of the waveguide and fixing it at 46.5℃,the frequency degeneracy of the SPDC generated photon pairs is realized.Based on the coincidence measurement setup together with two infrared spectrometers,the spectra of the signal and idler photons are obtained with their center wavelengths of 1561.43 nm and 1561.45 nm,and their 3-dB bandwidths of 3.62 nm and 3.60 nm respectively.The joint spectrum of the photon pair is observed,showing a joint spectrum bandwidth of 3.18 nm.The degree of frequency entanglement is quantified to be 1.13 according to the bandwidth ratio between the single photon spectrum and the joint spectrum.Furthermore,based on the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interferometric coincidence measurement setup,a visibility of about 96.1% is observed,which indicates the very good frequency indistinguishibility of the down-converted biphotons.The measured 3-dB width of the HOM dip is 1.47 ps and shows good agreement with the measured single-photon spectral bandwidth.The experimental results lay a solid foundation for developing portable,miniaturized frequency entangled sources at telecommunication band for the further applications in quantum information areas,such as quantum time synchronization.
The scalability of quantum communication networks requires compact, fiber-integrated, easy-to-deploy, and efficient wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) sources for multi-user secure key distribution. Here, we demonstrate such a multi-channel source of polarization-entangled photon pairs in the low-loss telecom C-band based on type-0 spontaneous parametric downconversion in a fiber-coupled Zn-indiffused MgO-doped periodically poled lithium-niobate (MgO:PPLN) ridge waveguide in the Sagnac configuration. The source can be easily tuned to generate the |Φ+⟩ or |Φ−⟩ Bell state in 14 channel pairs of the International Telecommunication Union dense WDM (100-GHz spacing) grid around 1550-nm with a raw fidelity of ≳89%, with a maximum value of ≳94%. The raw concurrence is ≳0.8 for both Bell states in all channel pairs, and the observed S-parameter (>2.56 ± 0.04 in all 14-channel pairs) shows a strong violation of CHSH-Bell’s inequality. The source’s suitability for long-distance entanglement transmission is also demonstrated by the successful transfer of entangled photons up to 100 km while maintaining fidelity >85% and quantum bit error rate <9%. The effect of polarization mode dispersion on entanglement distribution among remote users is also studied in detail. All these performance metrics are measured using conventional room-temperature semiconductor-based single-photon avalanche detectors, and these are the best reported with these detectors. Our highly flexible source can support up to ∼40 user pairs to communicate simultaneously, and it can be easily deployed into the current metro-area fiber-optic telecom infrastructure to form a complete WDM-based quantum communication network.
We report the realization of a fiber-coupled polarization entangled photon-pair source at 1310 nm based on a birefringent titanium in-diffused waveguide integrated into periodically poled lithium niobate. By making use of a dedicated and high-performance setup, we characterized the quantum properties of the pairs by measuring two-photon interference in both Hong–Ou–Mandel and standard Bell inequality configurations. For the two sets of measurements we obtained interference net visibilities reaching nearly 100%, which represent important and competitive results compared to those for the similar waveguide-based configurations already reported. These results prove the relevance of our approach as an enabling technology for long-distance quantum communication.
Polarization entangled photon pair source is widely used in many quantum information processing applications such as teleportation, quantum communications, quantum computation and high precision quantum metrology. We report on the generation of a continuous-wave pumped 1550 nm polarization entangled photon pair source at telecom wavelength using a type-II periodically poled KTiOPO(4) (PPKTP) crystal in a Sagnac interferometer. Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference measurement yields signal and idler photon bandwidth of 2.4 nm. High quality of entanglement is verified by various kinds of measurements, for example two-photon interference fringes, Bell inequality and quantum states tomography. The source can be tuned over a broad range against temperature or pump power without loss of visibilities. This source will be used in our future experiments such as generation of orbital angular momentum entangled source at telecom wavelength for quantum frequency up-conversion, entanglement based quantum key distributions and many other quantum optics experiments at telecom wavelengths.
The time-energy entangled photon source is a core resource in quantum key distribution, quantum teleportation, and quantum metrology. The output of orthogonally polarized photon pairs can enhance the effective coincidence counts of the entangled source in these applications. Additionally, an all-fiber entangled source offers small size and high mobility advantages. However, most current orthogonally polarized all-fiber time-energy entangled sources are limited to a bandwidth of around 1 nm, which is detrimental to the effective utilization of channel resources in fiber networks and restricts precision in quantum metrology. To address this issue, we employ a fiber-coupled 775 nm narrow linewidth pump laser in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide to achieve type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). This results in an all-fiber orthogonally polarized time-energy entangled photon source with a bandwidth greater than 7 nm. We measured the single counts, coincidence counts, coincidence to accidental coincidence ratio (CAR), single photon spectra, and joint spectral intensity of the entangled source, calculating the Schmidt number S = 7.8. Furthermore, we measured Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference by inserting two 2 nm bandpass filters, and the interference visibility remained around 95.8% after continuous operation for 3 hours. The experimental results indicate that while maintaining an all-fiber structure, this source possesses a broadband range, low noise, and high stability, providing efficient and reliable biphoton resources for applications in quantum communication, quantum networks, and precision metrology.
We report the realization of a new polarization entangled photon-pair source based on a titanium-indiffused waveguide integrated on periodically poled lithium niobate pumped by a CW laser at 655 nm. The paired photons are emitted at the telecom wavelength of 1310 nm within a bandwidth of 0.7 nm. The quantum properties of the pairs are measured using a two-photon coalescence experiment showing a visibility of 85%. The evaluated source brightness, on the order of 10(5) pairs s(-1)GHz(-1)mW(-1), associated with its compactness and reliability, demonstrates the source's high potential for long-distance quantum communication.