Alternative theories to quantum mechanics motivate important fundamental tests of our understanding and descriptions of the smallest physical systems. Here, using spontaneous parametric downconversion as a heralded single-photon source, we place expe
rimental limits on a class of alternative theories, consisting of classical field theories which result in power-dependent normalized correlation functions. In addition, we compare our results with standard quantum mechanical interpretations of our spontaneous parametric downconversion source over an order of magnitude in intensity. Our data match the quantum mechanical expectations, and do not show a statistically significant dependence on power, limiting on quantum mechanics alternatives which require power-dependent autocorrelation functions.
We report the development of a fiber-based single spatial mode source of photon-pairs where the efficiency of extracting photon-pairs is improved over a previous source [18] through the use of fiber-end expansion and Bragg filters. This improvement i
n efficiency enabled a spectrally bright and pure photon-pair source having a small second-order correlation function (0.03) and a raw spectral brightness of 44,700 pairs/(s nm mW). The source can be configured to generate entangled photon-pairs,characterized via optimal and minimal quantum state tomography, to have a fidelity of 97% and tangle of 92%, without subtracting any background.
