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arXiv · 2411.12835

Measuring photon correlation using imperfect detectors

Rachel N. Clark·Sam G. Bishop·Joseph K. Cannon·John P. Hadden·Philip R. Dolan·Alastair G. Sinclair·Anthony J. Bennett
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Abstract

Single-photon detectors are ``blind" after the detection of a photon, and thereafter display a characteristic recovery in efficiency, during which the number of undetected photons depends on the statistics of the incident light. We show how the efficiency-recovery, photon statistics and intensity have an interdependent relationship which suppresses a detector's ability to count photons and measure correlations. We also demonstrate this effect with an experiment using $n$ such detectors to determine the $n^{\mathrm{th}}$ order correlation function with pseudothermal light.

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Rachel N. Clark, Sam G. Bishop, Joseph K. Cannon, John P. Hadden, Philip R. Dolan, Alastair G. Sinclair, Anthony J. Bennett. 2024-11-19. Measuring photon correlation using imperfect detectors. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.22.064067

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