Photon number resolving detection with high speed and high quantum efficiency

Abstract

Photon number resolving detectors based on titanium-transition edge sensors with high speed and high quantum efficiency have been developed for quantum sensors in the fields of quantum information and quantum radiometry. The two devices optimized at wavelengths of interest showed 81% and 64% system detection efficiencies at 850 nm and 1550 nm, respectively. The response speed of the device optimized for a high counting operation is 190 ns, which corresponds to a counting rate over 1 MHz.

Invited Review Article: Single-photon sources and detectors

“…Since single-photon sensitivity was first demonstrated in the visible and IR, 326 TES devices of high efficiency have been demonstrated with superconductors made of tungsten, 299 titanium, 301,303,327 and hafnium, 300 and because they rely on simple absorption of the incident radiation followed by conversion to heat, their wavelength sensitivity can be tailored by appropriate antireflection coatings on the sensor surface. And most recently these devices have been fabricated using a design that self-aligns the fiber to the sensor area, facilitating reliable and robust high-efficiency assembly and construction, important steps toward a scalable detector.…”

“…328 From Table II, we also see that the highest detection efficiency among PNR detectors is achieved by the transitionedge sensor (TES) detectors, 299 with a detection efficiency of 95% for an incident wavelength of 1556 nm and 81% to 98% at 850 nm. [300][301][302] We also note that these detectors provide some of the best visibility between photon-number-resolved peaks of any visible detector. 257 Despite these high detection efficiencies and very low dark-count rates, drawbacks generally include a slow response of ≈100 ns and low maximum counting rates of ≈100 kHz (although Ref.…”

Sub-shot-noise-limit discrimination of on-off keyed coherent signals via a quantum receiver with a superconducting transition edge sensor

“…The energy resolution of the pulse height distribution is 0.4 eV. Details of the TES and its calibration method are found in [13]. An onoff detection with a TES is characterized by the detection efficiency and the dark counts.…”

Invariance of the bit error rate in the ancilla-assisted homodyne detection

“…However, due to severe limitations on their detection efficiency, the results demonstrated so far are still far from the theoretical limit without compensating the detection efficiencies. Although there is a rapid progress in the development of highly efficient photon counters [11,12], these are still very advanced technologies and not always available in quantum optics labs.…”