An avalanche-photodiode-based photon-number-resolving detector

By B. Kardynał, Zhiliang Yuan, Andrew J. Shields. 2008

228 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Avalanche photodiodes are widely used as practical detectors of single photons1. Although conventional devices respond to one or more photons, they cannot resolve the number of photons in the incident pulse or in a short time interval. However, photon-number-resolving detectors are urgently needed for applications in quantum computing2,3,4, communications5 and interferometry6, as well as for extending the applicability of quantum detection generally. Here we show that, contrary to current belief3,4, avalanche photodiodes are capable of detecting photon number, using a technique to measure very weak avalanches at the early stage of their development. Under such conditions the output signal from the avalanche photodiode is proportional to the number of photons in the incident pulse. As a compact, mass-manufactured device, operating without cryogens and at telecom wavelengths, it offers a practical solution for photon number detection. Determining the exact number of photons in a weak light pulse is an important requirement for many applications in quantum optics. Now, contrary to popular belief, Andrew Shields and colleagues have demonstrated that an avalanche-photodiode detector can perform the task.

Subfields: Acoustics and Ultrasonics, Artificial Intelligence, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2f41f496e7acee4bab112f5edc063947ce5acaf5

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In Acoustics and Ultrasonics

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Citations in the corpus

Tomography of quantum detectors (2009, background): “Moreover, for one of these photon number counters, only an incomplete and empirical model is availabl”
Efficient Multiphoton Sampling of Molecular Vibronic Spectra on a Superconducting Bosonic Processor (2019, background): “In optical systems, detectors that can simultaneously resolve the photon number and do so with a high quantum efficiency [25,26] are a necessary ingredient for protocols TABLE I.”
Quantum repeaters based on atomic ensembles and linear optics (2009, methodology): “It was recently demonstrated however that using a technique to measure very weak avalanches at the early stage of their development, it is possible to obtain photon number resolution (Kardynal et al., 2008).”
Single-photon detectors for optical quantum information applications (2009, background): “It is also possible to extract multiphoton sensitivity through such method”
Quantum Optical Technologies for Metrology, Sensing, and Imaging (2014, background): “This includes homodyne and heterodyne detection [33], the canonical phase measurement [34] (which can be mimicked by an adaptive measurement [35]), photon number counting [36], [37], and photon number parity [38].”