Joint spectral amplitude analysis of SPDC photon pairs in a multimode ppLN ridge waveguide

Abstract: In this paper, we study the possible parametric down conversion processes in a periodically poled customized Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) ridge waveguide. Our analysis of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), first, with a Gaussian pump beam mode and second, with an anti-symmetric Hermite-Gaussian HG (1,0) pump beam mode predict the possible down conversion processes in each case. From our JSA analysis, it is evident that the generated photons pairs in all these cases are negatively correlated and have orthogonal polarizations. In case of the former, degenerate photon pairs are emitted at 1550 nm with the highest efficiency in the fundamental waveguide mode. While, in case of the latter, non-degenerate photon pairs in different higher order spatial modes are generated. Such photons, thus, have multiple degrees of freedom, like polarization and spatial modes, which can be further harnessed towards hyper-entangled photons for quantum information applications.