Bipartite entanglement extracted from multimode squeezed light generated in lossy waveguides

Entangled two-mode Gaussian states constitute an important building block for continuous variable quantum computing and communication protocols. In this work, we theoretically study two-mode bipartite states, which are extracted from multimode light generated via type-II parametric downconversion (PDC) in lossy waveguides. For these states, we demonstrate that the squeezing quantifies entanglement and we construct a measurement basis, which results in the maximal bipartite entanglement. We illustrate our findings by numerically solving the spatial master equation for PDC in a Markovian environment. The optimal measurement modes are compared with two widely used broadband bases: the Mercer–Wolf basis (the first-order coherence basis) and the Williamson–Euler basis.