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arXiv:1812.07176 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Single photon detection by cavity-assisted all-optical gain

Christopher Panuski, Mihir Pant, Mikkel Heuck, Ryan Hamerly, Dirk Englund

Published May 10, 2019• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the free-carrier dispersion effect in a semiconductor nanocavity in the limit of discrete photoexcited electron-hole pairs. This analysis reveals the possibility of ultrafast, incoherent transduction and gain from a single photon signal to a strong coherent probe field. Homodyne detection of the displaced probe field enables an all-optical method for room-temperature, photon-number-resolving single photon detection. In particular, we estimate that a single photon absorbed within a silicon nanocavity can, within tens of picoseconds, be detected with $\ensuremath{\sim}99%$ efficiency and a dark count rate on the order of kilohertz assuming a mode volume ${V}_{\text{eff}}\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}2}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{(\ensuremath{\lambda}/{n}_{\text{Si}})}^{3}$ for a 4.5-$\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ probe wavelength and a loaded quality factor $Q$ on the order of ${10}^{4}$.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.99.205303

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