Characterizing heralded single photons with an all-fiber source of photon pairs

Abstract: Based on the signal and idler photon pairs produced in a piece of high nonlinear fiber by a pulsed pump, we characterize the heralded single photon source from both the theoretical and experimental aspects. In the theory model, started from the derived expression of Bogoliubov transformation for a broadband pulsed pump, the second-order intensity correlation function $g_c^{(2)}(0)$, heralding efficiency $H$, indistinguishability and brightness of the heralded single photons as a function of source parameters are analyzed and discussed. In the experiments, using several kinds of combinations of the source parameters, the values of $g_c^{(2)}(0)$ and $H$ are measured and compared. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical predictions. The investigations are useful for optimizing the parameters and for developing a single photon source suitable for quantum information processing.