Preparation of Entangled Pairs of Photons in Barium Beta Borate Crystal

Abstract

For the last two decades, the focus of scientific research in the field of information transmission and processing has been in such sections of quantum optics as quantum computing and quantum cryptography. These areas of optics rely on the discovery of a special type of radiation - beams with pairs of bound or entangled photons. The experimental work in Russia, devoted to the entangled photons is undeservedly little. Therefore, the proposed work is important from a methodical point of view. Moreover, the experiment is performed on domestic equipment, much cheaper than most foreign analogues. The described system can be used as a prototype for setting up educational demonstration and laboratory works. Therefore, the proposed work will be of interest to researchers and universities involved in quantum optics. As a result of the work done, the attempt to create a source of entangled photons based on a barium beta-borate crystal can be considered successful. It should be added that in a second type of crystal pairs of entangled photons arise not only with respect to directions (and frequencies), but also with respect to two orthogonal polarizations. A similar source makes it possible to set up experiments similar to the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experience in Bohm’s interpretation. Therefore, it is also suitable for testing the Bell inequality. The article considers the practical importance of the phenomenon of generation of entangled photons for the purposes of quantum cryptography, the phenomenon of spontaneous parametric scattering and the creation of a source of entangled pairs of photons based on it, the experimental system and the results of the experiment on generation of correlated photon pairs, tangled with respect to directions and frequencies, the result of the experiment on observing the correlation in the detection times of pairs of entangled photons.