Optimizing single-photon-source heralding efficiency at 1550 nm using periodically poled lithium niobate

We explore the feasibility of using high conversion-efficiency periodically-poled crystals to produce photon pairs for photon-counting detector calibrations at 1550 nm. The goal is the development of an appropriate parametric down-conversion (PDC) source at telecom wavelengths meeting the requirements of high-efficiency pair production and collection in single spectral and spatial modes (single-mode fibers). We propose a protocol to optimize the photon collection, noise levels and the uncertainty evaluation. This study ties together the results of our efforts to model the single-mode heralding efficiency of a two-photon PDC source and to estimate the heralding uncertainty of such a source.Comment: 14 pages, 2 tables and 3 figures, final version accepted by Metrologi

Narrowband polarization-entangled photon pairs distributed over a WDM link for qubit networks

We present a bright, narrowband, portable, quasi-phase-matched two-crystal source generating polarization-entangled photon pairs at 809 nm and 1555 nm at a maximum rate of 1.2 10^6 s-1 THz-1 mW-1 after coupling to single-mode fiber. The quantum channel at 1555 nm and the synchronization signal gating the single photon detector are multiplexed in the same optical fiber of length 27 km by means of wavelength division multiplexers (WDM) having 100 GHz (0.8 nm) spacing between channels. This implementation makes quantum communication applications compatible with current high-speed optical networks.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure