Statistics of multiphoton events in spontaneous parametric down-conversion

TL;DR

This paper experimentally characterizes the photon number statistics of multiphoton events generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion using a fiber loop detector, providing a theoretical model with physically interpretable parameters relevant for quantum information applications.

Contribution

It introduces an effective theoretical description of multiphoton statistics in SPDC with experimentally determined parameters, aiding the assessment of quantum sources for interference-based protocols.

Findings

Photon number resolved measurements of SPDC events

Effective theoretical model with physically interpretable parameters

Characterization of source usefulness for quantum information

Abstract

We present an experimental characterization of the statistics of multiple photon pairs produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion realized in a nonlinear medium pumped by high-energy ultrashort pulses from a regenerative amplifier. The photon number resolved measurement has been implemented with the help of a fiber loop detector. We introduce an effective theoretical description of the observed statistics based on parameters that can be assigned direct physical nterpretation. These parameters, determined for our source from the collected experimental data, characterize the usefulness of down-conversion sources in multiphoton interference schemes that underlie protocols for quantum information processing and communication.