We characterized an aperiodically poled KTP crystal designed for two simultaneous type-II down-conversion processes. Spontaneous prametric down-conversion using this crystal will produce polarization-entangled photon pairs.
We demonstrate a high-quality source of polarization-entangled photons in aperiodically-poled KTiOPO 4 (KTP). The crystal is based on a phase-modulated domain-engineered design that allows two simultaneous downconversion processes, where the two processes correspond to the two terms of the entangled-photon state. We characterized the temperature tuning of both the spectral response and the polarization-fringe visibility for spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) using this crystal. At the optimum temperature where wavelength distinguishability of the two SPDC processes is smallest, we obtained average polarization-entanglement visibility 0.984 ± 0.003 with a measured Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) parameter S = 2.801 ± 0.014. We also discuss the effects of the relative phase in the entangled-photon state and present a new way to compensate for these effects to obtain high polarization-entanglement visibility.
We develop and demonstrate a source of polarization-entangled photon pairs using spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in domain-engineered, periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) at telecom wavelengths. Pumped at 775 nm, this domain-engineered type-II SPDC source produces non-degenerate signal and idler pairs at 1530 nm and 1569 nm. Because of birefringence, the photon pair with horizontally polarized signal and vertically polarized idler has a different phasematching condition than the pair with vertically polarized signal and horizontally polarized idler. Using phase-modulation of the domain structure, we produced a crystal that can simultaneously generate both states in a distributed fashion throughout a single crystal. Performing SPDC using this aperiodically poled crystal, we observed polarization entanglement visibility above 93%. We compare the phase-modulated crystal to other aperiodic structures, including dual-periodically-poled and interlaced biperiodic structures.