Passive optical switching of photon pairs using a spontaneous parametric fiber loop

TL;DR

This paper introduces a passive optical switch for photon pairs using a novel spontaneous parametric fiber loop (SPFL) that leverages dispersion-induced phase differences to control photon routing.

Contribution

The study presents the design and analysis of the SPFL, a new fiber-based scheme that passively switches photon pairs by managing dispersive elements, enabling controlled photon routing.

Findings

SPFL can function as a passive switch for photon pairs.

Proper dispersion management directs photons to desired modes.

The scheme benefits all-fiber entangled photon pair sources.

Abstract

We study a novel scheme named spontaneous parametric fiber loop (SPFL), configured by deliberately intro- ducing dispersive elements into the nonlinear Sagnac loop, and show it can function as a passive switch of photon pairs. The two-photon state coming out of SPFL highly depends on the dispersion induced phase difference of photon pairs counter-propagating in the loop. By properly managing the dispersive elements, the signal and idler photons of a pair with a certain detuning and bandwidth can be directed to the desired spatial modes of SPFL. If the photon pairs are used to generate heralded single photons, the SPFL can be viewed as a switch of single photons. Moreover, our investigation about the dispersion based phase modulation is also beneficial for designing all fiber sources of entangled photon pairs.