Photon-pair generation in photonic crystal fibrebre with a 1.5GHz modelocked VECSEL

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates high-quality photon-pair generation via four-wave mixing in photonic crystal fibre pumped by a high-repetition-rate VECSEL, highlighting its potential for quantum communication applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel photon-pair source using a 1.5 GHz VECSEL for pumping photonic crystal fibre, combining high repetition rate and high count rates.

Findings

Photon pairs with high count rates achieved.

Coincidence-to-accidental ratio exceeds 80.

Source suitable for quantum key distribution.

Abstract

Four-wave mixing (FWM) in optical fibre is a leading technique for generating high-quality photon pairs. We report the generation of photon pairs by spontaneous FWM in photonic crystal fibre pumped by a 1.5 GHz repetition-rate vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL). The photon pairs exhibit high count rates and a coincidence-to-accidental ratio of over 80. The VECSEL's high repetition-rate, high average power, tunability, and small footprint make this an attractive source for quantum key distribution and photonic quantum-state engineering.