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arXiv:1710.09512 · Physical Review A

Fundamental limits to single-photon detection determined by quantum coherence and backaction

Steve M. Young, Mohan Sarovar, François Léonard

Published Mar 19, 2018• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Single-photon detectors have achieved impressive performance and have led to a number of new scientific discoveries and technological applications. Existing models of photodetectors are semiclassical in that the field-matter interaction is treated perturbatively and time-separated from physical processes in the absorbing matter. An open question is whether a fully quantum detector, whereby the optical field, the optical absorption, and the amplification are considered as one quantum system, could have improved performance. Here we develop a theoretical model of such photodetectors and employ simulations to reveal the critical role played by quantum coherence and amplification backaction in dictating the performance. We show that coherence and backaction lead to trade-offs between detector metrics and also determine optimal system designs through control of the quantum-classical interface. Importantly, we establish the design parameters that result in a ideal photodetector with 100% efficiency, no dark counts, and minimal jitter, thus paving the route for next-generation detectors.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.033836

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A number of applications in basic science and technology would benefit from high-fidelity photon-number-resolving photodetectors. While some recent experimental progress has been made in this direction, the requirements for true photon number resolution are stringent, and no design currently exists that achieves this goal. Here we employ techniques from fundamental quantum optics to demonstrate that detectors composed of subwavelength elements interacting collectively with the photon field can achieve high-performance photon number resolution. We propose a new design that simultaneously achieves photon number resolution, high efficiency, low jitter, low dark counts, and high count rate. We discuss specific systems that satisfy the design requirements, pointing to the important role of nanoscale device elements.
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In optical quantum information processing, two of the most basic elements are the sources of quantum mechanical states of light, and the devices that can detect these states. In this chapter, we narrow this down to photon sources and photodetectors. We will describe first how detectors work, starting from abstract ideal detectors, via a complete description of realistic detectors in terms of POVMS, to a brief overview of current photodetectors. Subsequently, we will define what is a single-photon source, and how we can determine experimentally whether a source produces single photons or something else. Having laid down the ground rules, we will survey some of the most popular ways photons are produced in the laboratory. Finally, we take a look at the production of entangled photon sources and quantum non-demolition measurements of photons. A mathematical model of photodetectors Photodetectors are devices that produce a macroscopic signal when triggered by one or more photons. In the ideal situation, every photon that hits the detector contributes to the macroscopic signal, and there are no ‘ghost’ signals, or so-called dark counts. In this situation we can define two types of detector, namely the ‘photon-number detector’, and ‘detectors without number resolution’. First, the photon number detector is a (largely hypothetical) device that tells us how many photons there are in a given optical mode that is properly localized in space and time. This property is called ‘photon-number resolution’.
We show that detection of single photons is not subject to the fundamental limitations that accompany quantum linear amplification of bosonic mode amplitudes, even though a photodetector does amplify a few-photon input signal to a macroscopic output signal. Alternative limits are derived for nonlinear photon-number amplification schemes with optimistic implications for single-photon detection. Four commutator-preserving transformations are presented: one idealized (which is optimal) and three more realistic (less than optimal). Our description makes clear that nonlinear amplification takes place, in general, at a different frequency ω' than the frequency ω of the input photons. This can be exploited to suppress thermal noise and dark counts past what is possible with linear amplification up to a fundamental limit imposed by nonlinear amplification into a single bosonic mode.