Highly efficient photon-pair source using a Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate Waveguide

We report on a new kind of correlated photon-pair source based on a waveguide integrated on a Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate substrate. Using a pump laser of a few micro-Watts at 657 nm, we generate degenerate photon-pairs at 1314 nm. Detecting about 1500 coincidences per second, we can infer a conversion rate of 10-6 pairs per pump photon, which is four orders of magnitude higher than that obtained with previous bulk sources. These results are very promising for the realization of sources for quantum communication and quantum metrology experiments requiring a high signal-to-noise ratio or working with more than one photon-pair at a time.