Reducing $g^{(2)}(0)$ of a parametric down-conversion source via photon-number resolution with superconducting nanowire detectors

Abstract

Multiphoton contributions pose a significant challenge for the realisation of heralded single-photon sources (HSPS) based on nonlinear processes. In this work, we improve the quality of single photons generated in this way by harnessing the photon-number resolving (PNR) capabilities of commercial superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs). We report a $13\pm 0.4\%$ reduction in the intensity correlation function $g^{(2)}(0)$ even with a collection efficiency in the photon source of only $29.6\%$. Our work demonstrates the first application of the PNR capabilities of SNSPDs and shows improvement in the quality of an HSPS with widely available technology.

10 pages, 4 figures

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• Enhanced Detection Rate and High Photon-Number Efficiencies with a Scalable Parallel SNSPD
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• Boosting Photon-Number-Resolved Detection Rates of Transition-Edge Sensors by Machine Learning
• Minimizing resource overhead in fusion-based quantum computation using hybrid spin-photon devices
• Optically-Sampled Superconducting-Nanostrip Photon-Number Resolving Detector for Non-Classical Quantum State Generation
• Jitter in photon-number-resolved detection by superconducting nanowires
• Effects of multi-photon states in the calibration of single-photon detectors based on a portable bi-photon source
• Advancing the heralded photon-number-state characterization by understanding the interplay of experimental settings
• A heralded single-photon source implemented with second-order nonlinear photonic crystals
• Practical considerations for assignment of photon numbers with SNSPDs