Radial modal dependence of the azimuthal spectrum after parametric down-conversion

The radial degrees of freedom of the biphoton states that are produced in spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) basis are investigated, theoretically and experimentally. We calculated the theoretical azimuthal Schmidt numbers for different combinations of radial indices and found that a larger azimuthal Schmidt number is obtained for higher radial indices of the signal and idler beams. Moreover, larger azimuthal Schmidt numbers are also obtained when the difference between the two radial indices increases. Comparing these theoretical predictions with the azimuthal Schmidt numbers obtained from experimentally measurements, we found good agreement. Experimentally we demonstrated that it is possible to obtain a threefold increase in the azimuthal Schmidt number while maintaining a reasonable coincidence count rate by using LG modes with slightly larger radial indices. © 2014 American Physical Society.