Measuring photon correlation using imperfect detectors

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.

8 pages, 6 figures including appendix

References in corpus (13)

• Quantum Cryptography
• Experimental quantum teleportation
• Quantum computational advantage using photons
• A strong loophole-free test of local realism
• Experimental Boson Sampling
• A bright and fast source of coherent single photons
• Real applications of quantum imaging
• Non-classical higher-order photon correlations with a quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic-crystal nanocavity
• Multiple time scale blinking in InAs quantum dot single-photon sources
• Design of broadband high-efficiency superconducting-nanowire single photon detectors
• Detection of ultra-weak laser pulses by free-running single-photon detectors: modeling dead time and dark counts effects
• Active Quenching of Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors
• Correction to the detector-dead-time effect on the second-order correlation of stationary sub-Poissonian light in a two-detector configuration

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Quantitative and Optimal Device-Independent Lower Bounds on Detection Efficiency