All-fiber photon-pair source for quantum communications

Author

Fiorentino, Marco ; Voss, Paul L. ; Sharping, Jay E. ; Kumar, Prem

Author_Institution

ECE Dept, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL, USA

Volume

14

Issue

7

fYear

2002

fDate

7/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

983

Lastpage

985

Abstract

In this letter, we present a source of quantum-correlated photon pairs based on parametric fluorescence in a fiber Sagnac loop. The photon pairs are generated in the 1550-nm fiber-optic communication band and detected with InGaAs-InP avalanche photodiodes operating in a gated Geiger mode. A generation rate > 10/sup 3/ pairs/s is observed, which is limited by the detection electronics at present. We also demonstrate the nonclassical nature of the photon correlations in the pairs. This source, given its spectral properties and robustness, is well suited for use in fiber-optic quantum communication and cryptography networks.

Keywords

avalanche photodiodes; fluorescence; light interferometers; multiwave mixing; optical fibres; optical parametric amplifiers; quantum communication; quantum cryptography; quantum optics; 1550 nm; InGaAs-InP; InGaAs-InP avalanche photodiodes; all-fiber photon-pair source; fiber Sagnac loop; fiber four-wave mixing; fiber-optic communication band; fiber-optic quantum communication; gated Geiger mode; generation rate; nonclassical photon correlations; nonlinear-fiber Sagnac interferometer; parametric amplifiers; parametric fluorescence; photon counting; quantum communications; quantum cryptography networks; quantum-correlated photon pairs; spectral properties; Cryptography; Flexible printed circuits; Fluorescence; Four-wave mixing; Frequency; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber couplers; Optical fiber polarization; Pulse amplifiers; Sagnac interferometers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2002.1012406

Filename

1012406