Photon pair-state preparation with tailored spectral properties by spontaneous four-wave mixing in photonic-crystal fiber

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how to engineer photon pairs with specific spectral properties using spontaneous four-wave mixing in photonic crystal fibers, enabling advanced quantum information applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates the possibility of creating factorable two-photon states with tailored spectral correlations through SFWM in photonic crystal fibers.

Findings

Ability to generate spectrally uncorrelated photon pairs

Flexibility in producing ultra-broadband, highly-anticorrelated states

Potential for heralded pure single-photon wave packets

Abstract

We study theoretically the generation of photon pairs by spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in photonic crystal optical fiber. We show that it is possible to engineer two-photon states with specific spectral correlation (``entanglement'') properties suitable for quantum information processing applications. We focus on the case exhibiting no spectral correlations in the two-photon component of the state, which we call factorability, and which allows heralding of single-photon pure-state wave packets without the need for spectral post filtering. We show that spontaneous four wave mixing exhibits a remarkable flexibility, permitting a wider class of two-photon states, including ultra-broadband, highly-anticorrelated states.