Design of mid-infrared entangled photon sources using lithium niobate

The mid-infrared (MIR) band entangled photon source is vital for the next generation of quantum communication, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing. However, the current entangled states are mainly prepared in the visible or near-infrared bands. It is still lacking high-quality entangled photon sources in the MIR band. In this work, we optimize the poling sequence of lithium niobate to prepare two kinds of typical entangled states, the Hermit- Gaussian state and the comb-like entangled state at 3.2 mu m. We have also calculated the photon pair rates and estimated the effect of fabrication resolution in the schemes. Our approach will provide entangled photon sources with excellent performance for the study of quantum information in the MIR band.(c) 2022 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

In this work, we optimized the poling sequence of lithium niobate to prepare two typical entangled states in the mid-infrared (MIR) band. The Hermit-Gaussian state and the comb-like entangled state at 3.2 μm were successfully achieved. Our approach provides high-quality entangled photon sources for quantum information research in the MIR band.