Bright source of spectrally pure polarization-entangled photon with nearly single-mode emission

Abstract

We present results of a bright entangled photon source operating at 1552 nm via type-II collinear degenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion in periodically poled KTP crystal. We report a conservative inferred pair generation rate of 44,000/s/mW into collection modes. Minimization of spectral and spatial entanglement was achieved by group velocity matching the pump, signal and idler modes and through properly focusing the pump beam. By utilizing a pair of calcite beam displacers, we are able to overlap photons from adjacent collinear sources to obtain polarization-entanglement visibility of 94.7 +/- 1.1% with accidentals subtracted.