This study presents an ultrabright polarization‐entangled photon source that is optimally coupled into single‐mode fibers (SMFs). This study theoretically and experimentally examines the characteristics of spontaneous parametric down‐conversion (SPDC) photons, including their spectrum, bandwidth, emission angle, and intensity, as functions of crystal length, temperature and beam waist condition. Notably, this study measures the collinear spatial modes of photon‐pairs and collection optics under various beam waist conditions and analyzes them using a collinear Gaussian approximation model. By employing a simple mode‐matching optical setup, it optimizes the SMF coupling and heralding efficiencies of the photon‐pairs. Consequently, it achieves a spectral brightness exceeding 2.0 MHz mW −1 nm −1 from a fiber‐coupled entangled photon source, utilizing a 30 mm ppKTP crystal inside a polarization Sagnac interferometer. This represents the highest spectral brightness of SPDC photons generated using a continuous‐wave (CW) laser pumped bulk crystal to date. Polarization entanglement is verified by a quantum state tomography and a polarization‐correlation measurement. The fidelity of the entangled state is measured to be 97.8% and the Bell‐Clauser‐Horne‐Shimony‐Holt value S = 2.782 ± 0.04. The results obtained here provide practical insights for designing high‐performance SPDC sources for satellite‐based communication and long‐distance optical links with extremely high‐photon loss.
This study presents an ultrabright polarization‐entangled photon source that is optimally coupled into single‐mode fibers (SMFs). This study theoretically and experimentally examines the characteristics of spontaneous parametric down‐conversion (SPDC) photons, including their spectrum, bandwidth, emission angle, and intensity, as functions of crystal length, temperature and beam waist condition. Notably, this study measures the collinear spatial modes of photon‐pairs and collection optics under various beam waist conditions and analyzes them using a collinear Gaussian approximation model. By employing a simple mode‐matching optical setup, it optimizes the SMF coupling and heralding efficiencies of the photon‐pairs. Consequently, it achieves a spectral brightness exceeding 2.0 MHz mW −1 nm −1 from a fiber‐coupled entangled photon source, utilizing a 30 mm ppKTP crystal inside a polarization Sagnac interferometer. This represents the highest spectral brightness of SPDC photons generated using a continuous‐wave (CW) laser pumped bulk crystal to date. Polarization entanglement is verified by a quantum state tomography and a polarization‐correlation measurement. The fidelity of the entangled state is measured to be 97.8% and the Bell‐Clauser‐Horne‐Shimony‐Holt value S = 2.782 ± 0.04. The results obtained here provide practical insights for designing high‐performance SPDC sources for satellite‐based communication and long‐distance optical links with extremely high‐photon loss.
We present an ultrabright polarization-entangled photon source that is optimally coupled into single-mode fibers (SMFs). This study theoretically and experimentally examines the characteristics of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) photons, including their spectrum, bandwidth, emission angle, and intensity, as functions of crystal length, temperature and beam waist condition. Notably, we measure the collinear spatial modes of photon-pairs and collection optics under various beam waist conditions and analyze them using a collinear Gaussian approximation model. By employing a simple mode-matching optical setup, we optimize the SMF coupling and heralding efficiencies of the photon-pairs. Consequently, we achieve a spectral brightness exceeding 2.0 MHz/mW/nm from a fiber-coupled entangled photon source, utilizing a 30-mm ppKTP crystal inside a polarization Sagnac interferometer. This represents the highest spectral brightness of SPDC photons generated using a CW laser pumped bulk crystal to date. Polarization entanglement was verified by a quantum state tomography and a polarization-correlation measurement. The fidelity of the entangled state is measured to be 97.8 % and the Bell-CHSH value S = 2.782 +- 0.04. The results obtained here provide practical insights for designing high-performance SPDC sources for satellite-based communication and long-distance optical links with extremely high-photon loss.
Entangled photon pairs play a crucial role in emerging quantum technologies, acting as tamper-proof padlocks in secure quantum communication, ultra-precise probes in quantum metrology and high-fidelity information carriers in photonic quantum computing. Amongst the many technological possibilities for generating photon pairs, sources based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in second-order nonlinear crystals are still the workhorse tool in quantum optics laboratories, and more recently even in long-distance quantum communication with satellites. SPDC is a widely used method to create entangled photon pairs. The number of photon pairs that can be detected in a particular choice of collection modes, typically being optical single-mode fibers, depends critically on the spatial characteristics of the multi-mode SPDC emission as well as the particular beam waist of the collection modes. While several studies have already addressed the issue of optimal fiber coupling of SPDC photons in theory and experiment, the results of these studies arrive at different conclusions. Here, we present the results of a comprehensive experimental study on the optimal collection of photon pairs into single-mode optical fibers. Our approach is based on quasi-phase-matched type II SPDC from a periodically poled KTiOPO4 (ppKTP) crystal. We discuss the influence of pump and collection focal parameters on the spectral brightness and heralding efficiency, as well as practical issues of alignment tolerances into an optical single mode fiber. Further, Using two-photon interference (Hong-Ou-Mandel interference), we assess the spectral bandwidth of the photon pairs for variable crystal lengths. The results are in good agreement with our theoretical model, thus providing the recipe of building ultra bright and stable entangled photon sources.
We report on a compact, simple and robust high brightness entangled photon source at room temperature. Based on a 30-mm-long periodically-poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal, the source produces non-collinear, type-0, phase-matched, degenerate photons at 810 nm with spectral brightness as high as ~0.41 ± 0.02 (~0.025 ± 0.02) MHz/mW/nm for multi (single) mode fiber coupling. So far, this is the highest number of degenerate photons generated using a continuous-wave laser pumped bulk crystal and detected using multimode fiber. We have studied the dependence of pump focusing on the brightness of the generated photons collected using both multimode, and single mode fibers. For a fixed pump power and crystal parameters, the SPDC source has an optimum pump waist radius producing maximum number of paired photons. Combining the crystal in a novel system architecture comprised with Sagnac interferometer and polarizing optical elements, the source produces polarization entangled photon states with high spectral brightness. Even in the absence of any phase compensation, the entangled photon states detected using single mode fiber have a Bell's parameter, S = 2.63 ± 0.02, violating the Bell's inequality by nearly 32 standard deviations and fidelity of 0.975. The compact footprint, robust design, and room temperature operation, make our source ideal for various quantum communication experiments.
Entangled photon sources (EPS), the major building block for a variety of quantum communication protocols, are commonly developed by utilizing the spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in χ2 nonlinear bulk optical materials. While high nonlinearity and long interaction length have established the superiority of the periodically poled crystals for EPSs, the phase-matching condition of such crystals is very sensitive to the fluctuation of the crystal temperature and the laser wavelength. As a result, deploying such sources outside the laboratory, for example, satellite-based applications, demands a stringent mass and power budget, thus enhancing the mission complexity and cost. We report a bright, stable entangled photon source with a relaxed requirement of crystal temperature and laser wavelength stabilization. Using a periodically poled KTP crystal inside a polarization Sagnac interferometer producing degenerate, type-0 phase-matched entangled photon pairs at 810 nm in an annular ring, we have transformed the SPDC ring into a "perfect" ring with the help of two common optical elements, axicon, and lens. Despite the variation of the SPDC ring size from Gaussian to annular of different diameters due to the change of crystal temperature over 7oC, and laser wavelength over 300 GHz, we observe the size of the "perfect" ring to be constant. The new EPS, having a spectral brightness as high as 22.58 ± 0.15 kHz/mW collected using single-mode fiber with a Bell's parameter, S = 2.64 ± 0.05, and quantum state fidelity of 0.95 ± 0.02, requires a crystal temperature stability of ±0.8oC, almost five times relaxation as compared to the previous EPS. The generic scheme can be used for non-collinear SPDC photons in all crystals to develop EPS at any wavelength and timescales for resource-constrained applications.
Entangled photon sources with high spectral brightness are important resources for photonic quantum information processing, particularly in quantum communication and quantum networking where usable photon flux of entangled photons is often constrained by channel loss and source inefficiency. Here, we demonstrate a spectrally engineered type-0 spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) source with enhanced spectral brightness for entanglement distribution. By pumping a 30-mm ppKTP crystal with an ultra-narrowband laser slightly detuned from degeneracy, photon-pair generation is concentrated into a narrow spectral bandwidth while retaining the strong nonlinear interaction of type-0 phase matching. The source produces a coincidence rate of 44.6 kHz corresponding to a detected spectral brightness of 0.507 MHz/mW/nm. We further integrate the source into a Sagnac interferometer to generate polarization-entangled photon pairs and demonstrate entanglement distribution through a 2.56 km free-space round-trip channel. Our results show that spectral engineering provides a practical route to compact, spectrally bright entangled-photon sources for quantum communication applications.
We report a Sagnac-type source based on a MgO:PPLN non-linear crystal pumped with a 532 nm continuous-wave laser, which generates spectrally non-degenerate, polarization-entangled photon pairs of 785 nm signal and 1651 nm idler wavelength, via the type-0 spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) process. We use standard off-the-shelf components; hence, no custom-designed multi-wavelength polarization optics are required. At the same time, long-term phase stability can be achieved due to the geometry of our Sagnac-type design. The source's brightness is 6.17(4)×106 pairs/sec/mW, which is comparable to the brightest state-of-the-art non-degenerate polarization-entangled photon-pair source. The spectral bandwidth of the single photon is approximately 195 GHz (root mean square). The fidelity of the entangled state is measured to be 96.72(1)%, the concurrence is 94.7(2)%, and the Bell-CHSH value S=2.71(6). This source has the potential to be applied in long-distance quantum communication using both free-space and fiber links simultaneously.