Experimental verification of high spectral entanglement for pulsed waveguided spontaneous parametric down-conversion

Abstract

We study the spectral properties of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in a periodically poled waveguided structure of potassium-titanyl- phosphate (KTP) crystal pumped by ultrashort pulses. Our theoretical analysis reveals a strongly entangled and asymmetric structure of the two-photon spectral amplitude for type-II SPDC. We confirm these predictions experimentally by measuring single-photon spectra, on one hand, and the dependence of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibility on the width of spectral filtering, on the other hand. © 2009 The American Physical Society.