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arXiv:1012.3248 · Optics Letters

Absolute calibration of photodetectors: photocurrent multiplication versus photocurrent subtraction

I. N. Agafonov, Maria V. Chekhova, T. Sh. Iskhakov, Alexander N. Penin, Georgy O. Rytikov, O. A. Shcherbina

Published Apr 4, 2011• 20 citations
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Abstract

We report testing of the new absolute method of photodetector calibration based on the difference-signal measurement for two-mode squeezed vacuum by comparison with the traditional absolute method based on coincidence counting. Using low-gain parametric downconversion, we have measured the quantum efficiency of a counting detector by both methods. The difference-signal method was adapted for the counting detectors by taking into account the dead-time effect.

DOI
10.1364/ol.36.001329

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We report testing of the new absolute method of photodetector calibration based on the difference-signal measurement for two-mode squeezed vacuum by comparison with the traditional absolute method based on coincidence counting. Using low-gain parametric downconversion, we have measured the quantum efficiency of a counting detector by both methods. The difference-signal method was adapted for the counting detectors by taking into account the dead-time effect.
We realize and test in experiment a method recently proposed for measuring absolute quantum efficiency of analog photodetectors. Similar to the traditional (Klyshko) method of absolute calibration, the new one is based on the direct detection of two-mode squeezed vacuum at the output of a traveling wave OPA. However, in the new method, one measures the difference-photocurrent variance rather than the correlation function of photocurrents (number of coincidences), which makes the technique applicable for high-gain OPA. In this work we test the new method versus the traditional one for the case of photon-counting detectors where both techniques are valid.
Approaches to the standard-free calibration of the quantum efficiency of a wide class of analog detectors based on the measurement of statistical characteristics of fields generated by parametric down-conversion are analyzed. General expressions are obtained for the noise reduction factor of the difference photocurrent and for the covariance of photocurrents in the signal and idler channels that take into account the possibility of strong fluctuations in the amplitudes of single-photon response functions of the detectors used. It is shown that the measurement of the noise reduction factor of the difference photocurrent using detectors that cannot operate in the photon counting mode is on its own insufficient to directly characterize the level of two-mode squeezing in the down-conversion field and to determine the quantum efficiency of photosensitive elements without additional calibration procedures. A method to determine the quantum efficiency of such detectors based on measuring the dependence of the normalized covariance of photocurrents on the parametric gain is proposed.
We present two methods for determining the absolute detection efficiency of photon-counting detectors directly from their singles rates under illumination from a nonclassical light source. One method is based on a continuous variable analog to coincidence counting in discrete photon experiments, but it does not actually rely on high detector time resolutions. The second method is based on difference detection, which is a typical detection scheme in continuous variable quantum optics experiments. Since no coincidence detection is required with either method, they are useful for detection efficiency measurements of photodetectors with detector time resolutions far too low to resolve coincidence events.
The quantum phenomena of parametric down conversion have been used for absolute measurement of the photodetector quantum efficiency of ultra-low-light radiation ranging from 10-12 to 10-15 W, which is equivalent to photon fluxes of 107 to 104 s-1. The process of parametric down conversion gives rise to highly correlated (in time and space) photon flux pairs. We describe the method, experimental investigation, and a new device involving the measurement of the coincidence rate of photodetection of these two correlated beams of light. The coincidence is lowered by a nonunit quantum efficiency of either detection. This fact was used for the definition of the absolute value of both photodetector's quantum efficiencies.
A new method of absolute calibration of photodetectors based on a nonclassical effect in nonlinear optics is discussed. The combined influence of a monochromatic flux of pump photons and quantum vacuum noise on a nonlinear crystal with no center of symmetry results in the appearance of rigorously correlated pairs of photons with continuous spectral distribution in the spontaneous parametric scattering of light (spontaneous parametric downconversion) process. The presence of an optical field in a broad spectral range created by the two-photon states (biphotons) makes it possible to develop a new method of measuring the spectral distribution of the absolute value of the quantum efficiency of photodetectors, both in photon counting and in analog regimes, that does not use any calibrated standard light sources (étalons). The feasibility of the method is demonstrated on different types of photomultiplier tube.