title: 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 ± 0.2) % fidelity with a maximally entangled Bell state.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Quantum Computing and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada. emeyersc@uwaterloo.ca
authors.forename: Evan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meyer-Scott
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bourgoin
authors.forename: Brendon L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Higgins
authors.forename: Lynden K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Shalm
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jennewein