We present a general quantum theory capable of describing photon statistics under the combined effects of four-wave mixing and Raman scattering inside optical fibers. Our theory is vectorial in nature and includes all polarization effects. Our analysis shows that spontaneous Raman scattering degrades the pair correlation in all cases but the extent of degradation depends on the pumping configuration employed. In a single-pump configuration, photon pairs can be created with polarization either parallel or orthogonal to the pump. Our results show that the orthogonal configuration can improve the extent of quantum correlation considerably over a broad bandwidth. In the case of a dual-pump configuration, we show that imbalance of two pump powers can be used to improve the quality of photon pairs. We show that orthogonally polarized pumps can generate photon pairs automatically in a polarization-entangled state. In particular, orthogonal pumping with circular polarizations produces such an entangled state with relatively high quality. We also quantify the quality of polarization entanglement as well as energy-time entanglement constructed using correlated photon pairs.

• Received 6 September 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.75.023803