Science
In reply to the discussion: Quantum Entanglement, Dark Counts, Coincidence Detection [View all]mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)It sounds like I need to get the stuff - type-II crystal, detectors, polarizing beam splittler, dichroic mirror (I have a couple that I got from ebay), IR filters - and set up a basic system to get some initial coincidence counts. The oscilloscope/logic analyzer I mentioned earlier is arriving next week, and I'll be able to use that to get traces from both detectors to get an idea of how many photons total and how many entangled pairs are generated. I'll worry about a real coincidence deector later, but it doesn't sound like that will be too expensive - I could also build something simple, like triggering a couple 74LS121s with the detector outputs - they will output a pulse of a length determined by capacitors and other components after receiving an edge on their inputs - then feed those to an AND gate.
As for the pump, starting off with an ebay laser sounds good, but the one you linked to is really nice! The TEC will be really helpful to keep a constant temperature, so I'll probably upgrade to that at some point.