Generation of fiber-coupled, nondegenerate, polarization-entangled photons for quantum communication

The production of polarization-entangled photon pairs from spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) enables many applications of quantum information processing. In this thesis, we use type-0 phase-matched downconversion of pump photons from a 532 nm continuous-wave laser to generate 798 nm signal and 1.6 tim idler photon pairs in periodically-poled, congruent lithium niobate (PPLN). Difference frequency generation of 798 nm is used for characterizing PPLN, including phase matching bandwidth and effective nonlinear coefficient. Optimal focusing for generating a single spatial mode SPDC output allows efficient coupling of signal and idler photons. Through coincidence counting, our source's spectral brightness is measured to be 3.6 x 105 Hz/mW/nm detected pairs/s/mW of pump power per nm of output photon bandwidth with an idler conditional detection efficiency of 1.6%. This work is a significant first step toward realizing a high-flux source of nondegenerate polarization-entangled photons.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Mookerji, Bhaskar

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Franco Wong.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51594

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/51594