Bright narrowband source of photon pairs at optical telecommunication wavelengths using a type-II periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide

We report on the generation of narrowband photon pairs at telecommunication wavelengths using a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide that utilizes the nonlinear tensor element d(24) for type-II quasi phase matching. The FWHM bandwidth of the spontaneous parametric downconversion was 1 nm. The brightness of the photon pair source was similar to 6 x 10(5)/s/GHz when the pump power was 1 mW. The indistinguishability of the signal and idler photons generated by the degenerate spontaneous parametric downconversion process was studied in a Hong-Ou-Mandel type interference experiment. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.