Generation of photon pairs in highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibres for quantum information processing

Flexible dispersion characteristics and enhanced nonlinearity make the highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibre(PCF) a good candidate to generate photon pairs for quantum information processing. Theoretical background and research progress of photon pairs generated in highly nonlinear PCFs by means of four wave mixing are presented. With a 8.5 m PCF with zero dispersion wavelength near 1552 nm, quantum correlated photon pairs are created around 1550 nm. It may prove eventually feasible to realize efficient, reliable, and low cost photon pair sources for practical applications.