Bright entangled photon source without stringent crystal temperature and laser frequency stabilization

Abstract: Entangled photon sources (EPS), the major building block for a variety of quantum communication protocols, are commonly developed by utilizing the spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in $\chi^{2}$ nonlinear bulk optical materials. While high nonlinearity and long interaction length have established the superiority of the periodically poled crystals for EPSs, the phase-matching condition of such crystals is very sensitive to the fluctuation of the crystal temperature and the laser wavelength. As a result, deploying such sources outside the laboratory, for example, satellite-based applications, demands a stringent mass and power budget, thus enhancing the mission complexity and cost. We report a bright, stable entangled photon source with a relaxed requirement of crystal temperature and laser wavelength stabilization. Using a periodically poled KTP crystal inside a polarization Sagnac interferometer producing degenerate, type-0 phase-matched entangled photon pairs at 810 nm in an annular ring, we have transformed the SPDC ring into a "perfect" ring with the help of two common optical elements, axicon, and lens. Despite the variation of the SPDC ring size from Gaussian to annular of different diameters due to the change of crystal temperature over $7^{o}$C, and laser wavelength over 300 GHz, we observe the size of the "perfect" ring to be constant. The new EPS, having a spectral brightness as high as 22.58 $\pm$ 0.15 kHz/mW collected using single-mode fiber with a Bell's parameter, S = 2.64 $\pm$ 0.05, and quantum state fidelity of 0.95 $\pm$ 0.02, requires a crystal temperature stability of $\pm$ $0.8^{o}$C, almost five times relaxation as compared to the previous EPS. The generic scheme can be used for non-collinear SPDC photons in all crystals to develop EPS at any wavelength and timescales for resource-constrained applications.