Characterization of a photon pair source based on a cold atomic ensemble using a cascade level scheme

TL;DR

This paper characterizes a photon pair source using cascade decay in cold Rb-87 atoms, analyzing how various parameters affect its performance, and provides insights for optimizing such sources for atomic system interactions.

Contribution

It presents an experimental study of a photon pair source based on cascade decay in cold Rb-87, with analysis of parameter dependencies and modeling for optimization.

Findings

Pair generation rate depends on atom number, detuning, and pump intensity.

Heralding efficiency and bandwidth are influenced by experimental parameters.

Steady state three-level model explains observed power and detuning behaviors.

Abstract

We characterize a source of photon pairs based on cascade decay in a cold Rb-87 ensemble. This source is particularly suited to generate of photons for interaction with Rb-87 based atomic systems. We experimentally investigate the dependence of pair generation rate, single photon heralding efficiency, and bandwidth as a function of the number of atoms, detuning and intensity of the pump beams. The observed power and detuning behaviors can be explained by the steady state solution of an established three-level model of an atom. Measurements presented here provide a useful insight on the optimization of this kind of photon pair sources.