Efficient generation of tunable photon pairs at 0.8 and 1.6 microm

We demonstrate efficient generation of collinearly propagating, highly nondegenerate photon pairs in a periodically poled lithium niobate cw parametric downconverter with an inferred pair generation rate of 1.4x10(7)/s/mW of pump power. Detection of an 800-nm signal photon triggers a thermoelectrically cooled 20%-efficient InGaAs avalanche photodiode for the detection of the 1600-nm conjugate idler photon. Using single-mode fibers as spatial mode filters, we obtain a signal-conditioned idler-detection probability of ~3.1%.