Exploring the role of polarization in fiber-based quantum sources

TL;DR

This paper investigates how polarization effects in optical fibers can be exploited to improve quantum photon sources, specifically focusing on triplet generation and four-wave-mixing, with theoretical models and efficiency estimates.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for polarization effects in fiber-based quantum sources and applies it to tapered and microstructured fibers for enhanced photon generation.

Findings

Explicit expectation values for photon triplet generation efficiency.

Polarization plays a significant role in optimizing four-wave-mixing processes.

Guidelines for experimental design based on polarization effects.

Abstract

Optical fibers constitute an attractive platform for the realization of nonlinear and quantum optics processes. Here we show, through theoretical considerations, how polarization effects of both third-order parametric down-conversion and four-wave-mixing in optical fibers may be exploited to enhance detection schemes. We apply our general framework specifically to the case of tapered fibers for photon triplet generation, a long-standing goal within quantum optics, and obtain explicit expectation values for its efficiency. A quantitative investigation of four-wave-mixing in a microstructured solid-core fiber provides significant consequences for the role of polarization in experimental design.