Fast and highly resolved capture of the joint spectral density of photon pairs

Controlling the spatial and spectral-temporal properties of photon pairs produced in artificially structured materials is fundamental to the realization of numerous photonic quantum information applications. Tailoring the joint spectral properties of photon pairs is of particular importance for applications relying on time energy entanglement, high-visibility interference, and heralding. Yet measuring the joint spectral properties is a time-consuming task requiring coincidence counting, typically resulting in low-resolution spectra with a poor signal-to-noise ratio. In this work we capture the joint spectral correlations of photon pairs that would be produced in optical fibers with unprecedented speed, resolution, and signal-to-noise ratio, using a scheme based on stimulated four-wave mixing. We also illustrate that this technique can be used in engineering joint spectral correlations, making it a powerful tool for studying quantum states. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America