Experimental generation of polarization entanglement from spontaneous parametric down-conversion pumped by spatiotemporally highly incoherent light

Abstract

The authors experimentally demonstrate the generation of polarization entanglement through spontaneous parametric down-conversion pumped by a spatiotemporally highly incoherent light beam. However, polarization entanglement from the spatiotemporally incoherent pump is susceptible to degradation. Theoretical analysis shows that the degradation stems from the coupling between the spatiotemporal and polarization degrees of freedom, which is introduced by the birefringence and dispersion of the nonlinear crystal.