Newton, NJ – January 20, 2021 – Thorlabs has announced the release of its latest addition to their product lineup for the rapidly growing field of Quantum Photonics, a correlated photon-pair source. The availability of a robust, high-brightness photon source is critical to the quantum photonics community for any number of applications spanning from fundamental photon-matter interaction to device characterization.

The design utilizes a user-adjustable and fully integrated 405 nm pump source on the front end of a spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) device to produce greater than 450 kHz photon pairs at 810 nm. Various design considerations were evaluated to produce a best-in-class (greater than 0.45) heralding ratio for use as a heralded single-photon source without sacrificing pair production rates. The results of these efforts, born out of a collaboration with researchers in academia and private industry, is a fully turnkey, cost-effective solution that is unique in the market. The photon pair (signal and idler) produced in the SPDC process is conveniently fiber coupled out of the compact room-temperature housing for plug-and-play usage.

James Easter, Engineering Manager for Thorlabs’ Newton-based Laser Division, said of the project, “With the SPDC810, we've cleared the burden of developing a photon pair source; the design manages to balance the subtle details and tradeoffs for achieving both good performance and reliability. Rather than spending their own time building a source, our customers can get started with their research directly. I'm eager to see what they do.”

For more information on Thorlabs' new photon-pair source, please visit the web presentation at thorlabs.com.