Generating polarization-entangled photon pairs using cross-spliced birefringent fibers

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel polarization-entangled photon-pair source based on standard birefringent polarization-maintaining optical fiber. The source consists of two stretches of fiber spliced together with perpendicular polarization axes, and has the potential to be fully fiber-based, with all bulk optics replaced with in-fiber equivalents. By modelling the temporal walk-off in the fibers, we implement compensation necessary for the photon creation processes in the two stretches of fiber to be indistinguishable. Our source subsequently produces a high quality entangled state having (92.2 \pm 0.2) % fidelity with a maximally entangled Bell state.

5 pages, 5 figures, updated to published version

References in corpus (6)

• Tailored photon-pair generation in optical fibers
• Nonclassical 2-photon interference with separate intrinsically narrowband fibre sources
• Feasibility of 300 km Quantum Key Distribution with Entangled States
• Collinear source of polarization-entangled photon pairs at non-degenerate wavelengths
• Generation of two-photon states with arbitrary degree of entanglement via nonlinear crystal superlattices
• Four-photon scattering in birefringent fibers