Spectral properties of three-photon entangled states generated via three-photon parametric down-conversion in a χ(3) medium

We consider the quantum state of light produced via direct parametric decay of pump photons into photon triples in a medium with cubic nonlinearity. For this state generated in the near-collinear frequency-degenerate regime, the third- and second-order Glauber's correlation functions are calculated and the intensity distribution over frequency and wave vector is found. It is shown that the number of photons generated into a single mode via the three-photon down-conversion is proportional to the width of the frequency-angular intensity distribution for the corresponding two-photon phase matching (spontaneous parametric down-conversion). The intensity of three-photon parametric down-conversion is shown to have an extremely broad frequency spectrum, even for a fixed angle of scattering.