We study the processes of spontaneous four wave mixing and of third-order spontaneous parametric downconversion in optical fibers, as the basis for the implementation of photon-pair and photon-triplet sources. We present a comparative analysis of the two processes including expressions for the respective quantum states and plots of the joint spectral intensity, a discussion of phasematching characteristics, and expressions for the conversion efficiency. We have also included a comparative study based on numerical results for the conversion efficiency for the two sources, as a function of several key experimental parameters.
@article{arxiv.1307.3266,
title = {Spontaneous parametric processes in optical fibers: a comparison},
author = {Karina Garay-Palmett and Maria Corona and Alfred U'Ren},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.3266},
year = {2013}
}