Heralded single-photon and correlated-photon-pair generation via spontaneous four-wave mixing in tapered optical fibers
Anatoly Shukhin, Jameesh Keloth, K. Hakuta, А. А. Калачев
Abstract
We study the generation of frequency nondegenerate correlated photon pairs and heralded single photons via spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in a series of identical micro- or nanofibers (MNFs). Joint spectral intensity of the biphoton field generated at wavelengths of about 880 and 1310 nm has been measured under excitation by 100-ps laser pulses demonstrating good agreement with the theoretical prediction. The measured zero-time second-order autocorrelation function was about 0.2 when the emission rate of the heralded photons was of 4 Hz. The MNF-based source perfectly matches standard single-mode fibers, which makes it compatible with the existing fiber communication networks. In addition, SFWM observation in a series of identical MNFs allows for increasing the generation rate of single photons via spatial multiplexing.