Widely tunable single-photon source with high spectral-purity from telecom wavelength to mid-infrared wavelength based on MgO:PPLN*

Abstract

By utilizing the extended phase-matching (EPM) method, we investigate the generation of single photons with high spectral-purity in a magnesium-doped periodically-poled lithium niobate (MgO:PPLN) crystal via the spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) process. By adjusting the temperature and pump wavelength, the wavelength of the single photons can be tuned from telecom to mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths, for which the spectral-purity can be above 0.95 with high transmission filters. In experiments, we engineer a MgO:PPLN with poling period of 20.35 μm which emits the EPM photon pair centered at 1496.6 nm and 1644.0 nm and carry out the joint spectral intensity (JSI) and Glauber’s second-order self-correlation measurements to characterize the spectral purity. The results are in good agreement with the numerical simulations. Our work may provide a valuable approach for the generation of spectrally pure single photons at a wide range of wavelengths which is competent for various photonic quantum technologies.