Domain-engineered, aperiodically-poled KTiOPO₄ for polarization-entangled photons

We demonstrate a high-quality source of polarization-entangled photons in aperiodically-poled KTiOPO 4 (KTP). The crystal is based on a phase-modulated domain-engineered design that allows two simultaneous downconversion processes, where the two processes correspond to the two terms of the entangled-photon state. We characterized the temperature tuning of both the spectral response and the polarization-fringe visibility for spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) using this crystal. At the optimum temperature where wavelength distinguishability of the two SPDC processes is smallest, we obtained average polarization-entanglement visibility 0.984 ± 0.003 with a measured Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) parameter S = 2.801 ± 0.014. We also discuss the effects of the relative phase in the entangled-photon state and present a new way to compensate for these effects to obtain high polarization-entanglement visibility.