An ultrabright narrowband source of polarization-entangled photon pairs

Abstract

The signals and idlers from a pair of matched, doubly resonant optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) can be combined to yield polarization-entangled vector signal and idler beams. Within any coincidence interval much longer than the OPA cavity lifetime, every signal photon of polarization is accompanied by an idler photon of the conjugate polarization ´, and vice versa. For periodically poled lithium tantalate OPAs, the pair production rate is estimated to be approximately 1.5 × 106 s-1 , within a 30 MHz bandwidth at a 795 nm centre wavelength and a 70 ns duration coincidence interval, using only 0.7 mW of pump power per OPA.