Design of mid-infrared entangled photon sources using lithium niobate

TL;DR

This paper presents optimized lithium niobate sources for generating high-quality entangled photon pairs in the mid-infrared band, advancing quantum communication and sensing capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces optimized poling techniques in lithium niobate to produce specific entangled states at 3.2 μm, filling a gap in MIR entangled photon sources.

Findings

Successful generation of Hermit-Gaussian and comb-like entangled states at 3.2 μm

Calculated photon pair rates and fabrication resolution effects

Potential for high-performance MIR quantum information applications

Abstract

The mid-infrared (MIR) band entangled photon source is vital for the next generation of quantum communication, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing. However, the current entangled states are mainly prepared in visible or near-infrared bands. It is still lack of high-quality entangled photon sources in the MIR band. In this work, we optimize the poling sequence of lithium niobate to prepare two kinds of typical entangled states, the Hermit-Gaussian state and the comb-like entangled state at 3.2 $\mu$m. We have also calculated the photon pair rates and estimated the effect of fabrication resolution in the schemes. Our approach will provide entangled photon sources with excellent performance for the study of quantum information in the MIR band.