Cascaded ultrabright source of polarization-entangled photons

An ultrabright source of polarization-entangled photons has been realized using type-II phase matching in the spontaneous parametric down-conversion process in two cascaded crystals. The optical axes of the crystals are aligned in such a way that the extraordinarily (ordinarily) polarized cone from one crystal overlaps with the ordinarily (extraordinarily) polarized cone from the second crystal. This spatial overlapping removes the association between the polarization and the output angle of the photons that exists in a single type-II down-conversion process. Hence, entanglement of photon pairs originating from any conjugate points on the output cones is possible if a suitable optical delay line is used. This delay line is particularly simple and easy to implement.