type-II Spontaneous Parametric Down-conversion Research Articles

Experimental generation and characterization of partially spatially coherent qubits

Partially spatially coherent qubits are more immune to turbulent atmospheric conditions than coherent qubits, which makes them excellent candidates for free-space quantum communication. In this article, we report the generation of partially spatially coherent qubits in a spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) process using a Gaussian Schell model (GSM) pump beam. For this non-linear process, we demonstrate experimentally for the first time, the transfer of spatial coherence features of the pump (classical) to the biphotons (quantum) field. Also, the spatial profiles of partially coherent qubits generated in type-I and type-II non-collinear SPDC process are experimentally observed and multi-mode nature of partially coherent photons (qubit) is ascertained. These investigations pave the way toward the efficient generation of partially spatially coherent qubits with a tunable degree of spatial coherence, which lead to wide range of applications in frontier areas such as quantum cryptography, teleportation, imaging, and lithography.

Measuring the Schmidt number of parametric down conversion by exploiting photon distribution

The Schmidt number quantifies the number of modes and is mainly used as a measure for the quality of entanglement. We theoretically compute the photon distribution of type-I spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) with an arbitrary Schmidt number. The photon distribution is used for a novel method to measure the Schmidt number. This method requires only two on–off single-photon detectors with no photon number or temporal resolution. The method works in the strong pumping regime where high photon numbers are non-negligible. We experimentally demonstrate the method for type-II SPDC. The easy and fast measurement of the Schmidt number has a broad range of applications from the calibration of strong pump SPDC and entanglement sources to multi-photon quantum interference and Gaussian boson sampling.

Making entangled photons indistinguishable by a time lens

We propose an application of quantum temporal imaging to restoring the indistinguishability of the signal and the idler photons produced in type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion with a pulsed broadband pump. It is known that in this case, the signal and the idler photons have different spectral and temporal properties. This effect deteriorates their indistinguishability and the visibility of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, respectively. We demonstrate that inserting a time lens in one arm of the interferometer and choosing properly its magnification factor restores perfect indistinguishability of the signal and the idler photons and provides 100% visibility of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference in the limit of high focal group delay dispersion of the time lens.

On-chip generation of hybrid polarization-frequency entangled biphoton states

We demonstrate a chip-integrated semiconductor source that combines polarization and frequency entanglement, allowing the generation of entangled biphoton states in a hybrid degree of freedom without post-manipulation. Our AlGaAs device is based on type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion in a counterpropagating phase-matching scheme in which the modal birefringence lifts the degeneracy between the two possible nonlinear interactions. This allows the direct generation of polarization–frequency entangled photons at room temperature and telecom wavelength, and in two distinct spatial modes, offering enhanced flexibility for quantum information protocols. The state entanglement is quantified by a combined measurement of the joint spectrum and Hong–Ou–Mandel interference (raw visibility 70.1 % ± 1.1 % ) of the biphotons, allowing to reconstruct a restricted density matrix in the hybrid polarization–frequency space.

Birefringence compensation utilizing quarter-wave plates in cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion process

Single-photon source is an essential element in quantum information processing, and extensively used in the proof-in-principle demonstration in quantum physics, quantum imaging, quantum cryptography, etc. Considering the operating temperature and system complexity, it is a favorable option to choose spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) combined with the enhancement effect of a cavity. When generating significant single-photon source via the cavity-enhanced type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion method, there appears inevitable birefringence effect which obviously influences the resonance condition. In order to compensate for birefringence effect, different approaches have been used such as introducing compensating crystal, placing a half-wave plate, tuning the temperature of the nonlinear crystal, customized conjoined double-cavity structure, and cluster effect. In this work, two quarter-wave plates, with an angle of 45° between the optical axis and the crystal axis, are placed in the cavity to ensure the double resonance of signal photon and idler photon. In the process, the signal photon and idler photon generated simultaneously have different polarizations perpendicular to each other through the type-II nonlinear crystal. Considering horizontally polarized photon, its polarization is changed into left circular polarization by the first quarter-wave plate and then returns as vertical polarization. After traversing a long optical path, it shifts to right circular polarization through the second quarter-wave plate. When the photon passes through the same quarter-wave plate again, the polarization state is originally converted into horizontal polarization state. Then the photon completes a round-trip. The other photon with vertical polarization experiences the same process. As a result, the signal photon and idler photon travel identical optical path. The general explanation is described by the Jones matrices, with the emphasis on the transformation of the polarizations of photons. This method can effectively compensate for birefringence effect, achieving double resonance by using a relatively simple device under the condition of smaller intra-cavity loss and more flexible for adjustment. The signal (idler) photon has a sub-natural linewidth of <inline-formula><tex-math id="Z-20230611154134">\begin{document}$1.01( 1.08 )\;{\rm{MHz}} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="12-20230422_Z-20230611154134.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="12-20230422_Z-20230611154134.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula>, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed technique. This introduced compensating method paves the way to the realization of single-photon quantum source applied to the research of single-photon-single-atom quantum information processing, quantum interface and quantum network node with a single cesium atom confined in the strongly coupled cavity quantum electrodynamics system.

Nonlocal realism tests and quantum state tomography in Sagnac-based type-II polarization-entanglement SPDC-source

We have experimentally created a robust, ultrabright and phase-stable polarization-entangled state close to maximally entangled Bell-state with %98-fidelity using the type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) process in periodically-poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) collinear crystal inside a Sagnac interferometer (SI). Bell inequality measurement, Freedman's test, as the different versions of CHSH inequality, and also visibility test which all can be seen as the nonlocal realism tests, imply that our created entangled state shows a strong violation from the classical physics or any hidden-variable theory. We have obtained very reliable and very strong Bell violation as S=2.78±0.01 with high brightness VHV=%(99.969±0.003) and VDA=%(96.751±0.002) and very strong violation due to Freedman test as δF=0.01715±0.00001. Furthermore, using the tomographic reconstruction of quantum states together a maximum-likelihood-technique (MLT) as the numerical optimization, we obtain the physical non-negative definite density operator which shows the nonseparability and entanglement of our prepared state. By having the maximum likelihood density operator, we calculate some important entanglement-measures and entanglement entropies. The Sagnac configuration provides bidirectional crystal pumping yields to high-rate entanglement source which is very applicable in quantum communication, sensing and metrology as well as quantum information protocols, and has potential to be used in quantum illumination-based LIDAR and free-space quantum key distribution (QKD).

Broadband fiber-based entangled photon-pair source at telecom O-band.

In this Letter, we report a polarization-entangled photon-pair source based on type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion at telecom O-band in periodically poled silica fiber (PPSF). The photon-pair source exhibits more than 130 nm (∼24THz) emission bandwidth centered at 1306.6 nm. The broad emission spectrum results in a short biphoton correlation time, and we experimentally demonstrate a Hong-Ou-Mandel interference dip with a full width of 26.6 fs at half-maximum. Owing to the low birefringence of the PPSF, the biphotons generated from type-II SPDC are polarization-entangled over the entire emission bandwidth, with a measured fidelity to a maximally entangled state greater than 95.4%. The biphoton source provides the broadest bandwidth entangled biphotons at O-band to our knowledge.

Compact sub-GHz bandwidth single-mode time-energy entangled photon source for high-speed quantum networks

The potential data rate of a quantum network is limited by both the entangled photon source (EPS) and quantum memories. While an EPS whose bandwidth matches with broadband quantum memories (BBQMs) can take full advantage of the data rate limit. The EPS with GHz bandwidth is usually obtained by filtering a much broader EPS signal that is generated through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), but this method has obvious drawbacks, e.g., large space requirements, high losses, and relatively low spectral brightness. Here we present a simple and compact method to generate a single-longitudinal-mode sub-GHz-bandwidth time-energy EPS using a type-II SPDC in a submillimeter-length Fabry-Pérot cavity. The proposed photon source offers superior figures of merit: the maximum coincidence to accidental coincidence ratio is approximately 1800, the detected pair flux ranges up to 42500 pairs per second, and the source has a high Klyshko efficiency of 25%. This source offers a very potential way to boost the performance of broadband quantum memories and high-speed quantum networks.

Postselection-free, hyperentangled photon pairs in a periodically poled lithium-niobate ridge waveguide

In this paper, we propose the generation of hyperentangled photon pairs using type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a biperiod, 5% MgO-doped lithium-niobate ridge waveguide. The photon pairs are entangled in spatial mode and polarization degrees of freedom. A pulsed laser source at 687 nm, having an antisymmetric Hermite-Gaussian HG (1,0) spatial mode, is considered as the pump. Down-converted photon pairs, with the signal being at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm, are characterized through a joint spectral amplitude analysis of their biphoton state.

Generation of narrowband counterpropagating polarization-entangled photon pairs based on thin-film lithium niobate on insulator

We propose a scheme for the generation of counterpropagating polarization-entangled photon pairs from a periodically poled lithium niobate on insulator waveguide. The waveguide is designed to enable a special dispersion relationship between the T M 00 and T E 00 modes that allows two concurrent counterpropagating quasi-phase-matching type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion processes with a single reciprocal wave vector. Due to the counterpropagating phase-matching geometry, the source has a narrow bandwidth in the order of several gigahertz. The compact source opens up a new method for integrated photonic technologies.

Demonstration of a polarization-entangled photon-pair source based on phase-modulated PPLN

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.

On the control of the momentum distribution of paired photons generated by non-collinear type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion

We present a theoretical and experimental characterization of the joint spatial distribution of paired photons generated via non-collinear type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Specifically, for the photons created parallel and perpendicular to the optical table, we determine the shape of such distributions and the degree of correlation of these photons. The characterization is done for different sizes of the pump beam waist. We found that it is possible to have different spatial distributions of the photons with the same degree of correlation.

Dispersive Broadening of Two-photon Wave Packets Generated via Type-I and Type-II Spontaneous Parametric Down-conversion

Photons generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) have broad spectrums and suffer from dispersive broadening of the temporal wave packets when they are transmitted through dispersive media. In this paper we theoretically and experimentally study the detailed amount of the temporal broadening of the two-photon wave packets generated via both type-I and type-II SPDC with β-BaB2O4 of various lengths, by transmitting them through optical fibers. We interpret the results with respect to the spectral properties of the two-photon wave packets. We believe that our results will contribute to implementing protocols involving long-range distributions of photon pairs.

Direct generation of hybrid entangled photon pairs in waveguides

In this paper, we propose a scheme for direct generation of hybrid spatial modal–polarization entangled photon pairs using a type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion process and the electro-optic effect in a domain engineered potassium titanyl phosphate nonlinear waveguide. Such hybrid entangled states must find applications in quantum information processing using integrated photonic circuits.

Asymmetric adiabatic couplers for fully-integrated broadband quantum-polarization state preparation

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is a widely used method to generate entangled photons, enabling a range of applications from secure communication to tests of quantum physics. Integrating SPDC on a chip provides interferometric stability, allows to reduce a physical footprint, and opens a pathway to true scalability. However, dealing with different photon polarizations and wavelengths on a chip presents a number of challenging problems. In this work, we demonstrate an on-chip polarization beam-splitter based on z-cut titanium-diffused lithium niobate asymmetric adiabatic couplers (AAC) designed for integration with a type-II SPDC source. Our experimental measurements reveal unique polarization beam-splitting regime with the ability to tune the splitting ratios based on wavelength. In particular, we measured a splitting ratio of 17 dB over broadband regions (>60 nm) for both H- and V-polarized lights and a specific 50%/50% splitting ratio for a cross-polarized photon pair from the AAC. The results show that such a system can be used for preparing different quantum polarization-path states that are controllable by changing the phase-matching conditions in the SPDC over a broad band. Furthermore, we propose a fully integrated electro-optically tunable type-II SPDC polarization-path-entangled state preparation circuit on a single lithium niobate photonic chip.

Characterization of type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion in domain-engineered PPLN.

We characterize spontaneous parametric downconversion in a domain-engineered, type-II periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal using seeded emission and single-photon techniques. Using continuous-wave (CW) pumping at 775 nm wavelength, the signal and idler are at 1532.5 nm and 1567.5 nm, respectively. The domain-engineered crystal simultaneously phasematches signal and idler pairs: [H(1532.5 nm), V(1567.5 nm)] and [V(1532.5 nm), H(1567.5 nm)]. We observe the tuning curves of these processes through difference-frequency generation and through CW fiber-assisted, single-photon spectroscopy. These measurements indicate good matching in amplitude and bandwidth of the two processes and that the crystal can in principle be used effectively to generate polarization-entangled photon pairs.

Two polarization-entangled sources from the same semiconductor chip

Generating nonclassical states of photons such as polarization entangled states on a monolithic chip is a crucial step towards practical applications of optical quantum information processing such as quantum computing and quantum key distribution. Here we demonstrate two polarization entangled photon sources in a single monolithic semiconductor waveguide. The first source is achieved through the concurrent utilization of two spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) processes, namely type-0 and type-I SPDC processes. The chip can also generate polarization entangled photons via the type-II SPDC process, enabling the generation of both co-polarized and cross-polarized entangled photons in the same device. In both cases, polarization entanglement is generated directly on the chip without the use of any off-chip compensation, interferometry or bandpass filtering. This enables direct, chip-based generation of both Bell states $(|H,H\rangle+|V,V\rangle)/\sqrt{2}$ and $(|H,V\rangle+|V,H\rangle)/\sqrt{2}$ simultaneously utilizing the same pump source. In addition, based on compound semiconductors, this chip can be directly integrated with it own pump laser. This technique ushers an era of self-contained, integrated, electrically pumped, room-temperature polarization entangled photon sources.

Spectral properties of broadband biphotons generated from PPMgSLT under a type-II phase-matching condition

We report the spectral properties of broadband biphotons generated by pulsed type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion based on a periodically poled MgO-doped stoichiometric LiTaO3 (PPMgSLT). Spectroscopic and interferometric measurements were used to characterize the biphoton source. For the spectroscopic measurements, we used conventional spectroscopy and joint spectral intensity measurements. For the interferometric measurements, sum- and difference-frequency two-photon interference experiments were performed to estimate the spectral correlation and to ensure the broadband nature of biphotons, respectively. When using a picosecond Ti:sapphire as a pump source, the spectral width of biphotons was over 40 nm. Finally, we demonstrated the relationship between the two-photon interference visibility and the symmetricity of the joint spectral distribution.

Correlation control for pure and efficiently generated heralded single photons

We present a detailed study on the properties of single photons generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) when both the spectral and spatial degrees of freedom are controlled by means of filters. Our results show that it is possible to obtain pure heralded single photons with high heralding efficiency despite the use of filters. Moreover, we report an asymmetry on the single photon properties exhibited in type-II SPDC sources that depends on choosing the signal or the idler photon as the heralding one.

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion using a pulse train

The process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is studied for the case in which the pump is a train of pulses. Effects of such a train of pulses (equivalent to a frequency comb) on degenerate collinear type-II SPDC and degenerate collinear type-I SPDC are analyzed using the probability of photon coincidence counts and compared with the case when the medium is pumped by a single pulse.