Observation of ultrabroadband, beamlike parametric downconversion

We report spontaneous parametric downconversion having an unusually wide spectral bandwidth. A collinear type 1 phase-matching configuration is employed with degeneracy near the zero group-velocity dispersion frequency. With a spectral width of 1080 nm and degenerate wavelength of 1885 nm, the source also emits a high flux of 3.4 x 10(11) s(-1) W-1 photon pairs constrained to a cone of only approximate to 2 degrees half-angle. A rigorous theoretical approach is developed that confirms the experimental observations. The source properties are consistent with an ultrashort photon-pair correlation time and, for a narrowband pump, extremely high-dimensional spectral entanglement. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.