January 2019
Spotlight Summary by Christopher Chunnilall
A high dynamic range optical detector for measuring single photons and bright light
A single-photon detector has set a new mark by its ability to measure from less than 1 to over 105 photons within a single optical pulse. Optimal preparation, detection, and measurement of single- and multi-photon states is essential for achieving the full potential of new technologies which use quantum photonic effects to enhance secure communications, sensing, imaging, metrology, and (potentially) computation.
Intrinsic photon-number resolving detectors are limited to pulses comprising less than a few 10s of photons. A "loop detector" measures a multi-photon pulse by chopping it up into smaller pulses, each having less than 1 photon on average. These smaller pulses are sequentially sent to a "click/no-click" sensor, which can only differentiate between 0 and (> 0) photons. The Paderborn group have extended the functionality of this detector, enabling it to measure pulses comprising over 105 photons and non-classical photon statistics. A superconducting nanowire detector, with less false counts than the more common single-photon avalanche photodiode, is used as the sensor. This work adds a new tool which can, with further development, advance quantum technologies and also link optical power between the single-photon and fW regimes.
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Intrinsic photon-number resolving detectors are limited to pulses comprising less than a few 10s of photons. A "loop detector" measures a multi-photon pulse by chopping it up into smaller pulses, each having less than 1 photon on average. These smaller pulses are sequentially sent to a "click/no-click" sensor, which can only differentiate between 0 and (> 0) photons. The Paderborn group have extended the functionality of this detector, enabling it to measure pulses comprising over 105 photons and non-classical photon statistics. A superconducting nanowire detector, with less false counts than the more common single-photon avalanche photodiode, is used as the sensor. This work adds a new tool which can, with further development, advance quantum technologies and also link optical power between the single-photon and fW regimes.
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Article Information
A high dynamic range optical detector for measuring single photons and bright light
Johannes Tiedau, Evan Meyer-Scott, Thomas Nitsche, Sonja Barkhofen, Tim J. Bartley, and Christine Silberhorn
Opt. Express 27(1) 1-15 (2019) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF