A microstructured fiber source of photon pairs at widely separated wavelengths

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel microstructured fiber source that generates widely separated photon pairs at 810 nm and 1548 nm, suitable for quantum communication and repeater applications, with confirmed non-classical properties.

Contribution

The work introduces a fiber-based photon pair source with widely separated wavelengths, suitable for quantum repeaters and telecommunications, demonstrating non-classical photon correlations.

Findings

Photon pairs generated at 810 nm and 1548 nm

Confirmed non-classical nature via g^{(2)}(0) measurements

Suitable for long-distance quantum communication

Abstract

We demonstrate a source of photon pairs with widely separated wavelengths, 810 nm and 1548 nm, generated through spontaneous four-wave mixing in a microstructured fiber. The second-order auto-correlation function g^{(2)}(0) was measured to confirm the non-classical nature of a heralded single photon source constructed from the fiber. The microstructured fiber presented herein has the interesting property of generating photon pairs with wavelengths suitable for a quantum repeater able to link free-space channels with fiber channels, as well as for a high quality telecommunication wavelength heralded single photon source. It also has the advantage of straightforward coupling into optical fiber. These reasons make this photon pair source particularly interesting for long distance quantum communication.