Idealized Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen states from non–phase-matched parametric down-conversion

Authors
C. Okoth, E. Kovlakov, F. Bönsel, A. Cavanna, S. Straupe, S. P. Kulik, and M. V. Chekhova

Physical Review A, 101, 1, 011801 (2020)

Abstract
The most common source of entangled photons is spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). The degree of energy and momentum entanglement in SPDC is determined by the nonlinear interaction volume. By reducing the length of a highly nonlinear material, we relax the longitudinal phase-matching condition and reach record levels of transverse momentum entanglement. The degree of entanglement is estimated using both correlation measurements and stimulated emission tomography in wave-vector space. The high entanglement of the state in wave-vector space can be used to massively increase the quantum information capacity of photons, but more interestingly the equivalent state measured in position space is correlated over distances far less than the photon wavelength. This property promises to improve the resolution of many quantum imaging techniques beyond the current state of the art.