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arXiv · 1708.09015

Photon-number-resolving segmented detectors based on single-photon avalanche-photodiodes

Rajveer Nehra·Chun-Hung Chang·Qianhuan Yu·Andreas Beling·Olivier Pfister
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Abstract

We investigate the feasibility and performance of photon-number-resolved photodetection employing single-photon avalanche photodiodes (SPADs) with low dark counts. While the main idea, to split $n$ photons into $m$ detection modes with no more than one photon per mode, is not new, we investigate here a important variant of this situation where SPADs are side-coupled to the same waveguide rather than terminally coupled to a propagation tree. This prevents the nonideal SPAD quantum efficiency from contributing to photon loss. We propose a concrete SPAD segmented waveguide detector based on vertical directional coupler design, and characterize its performance by evaluating the purities of positive-operator-valued measurements (POVMs) in terms of SPAD number $m$, photon loss, and dark counts.

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Rajveer Nehra, Chun-Hung Chang, Qianhuan Yu, Andreas Beling, Olivier Pfister. 2017-08-29. Photon-number-resolving segmented detectors based on single-photon avalanche-photodiodes. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.380416

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