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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Coherent state statistics from time-resolved photon counting

Harish Ravi, Anil Prabhakar

Published Dec 2, 2010• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Time resolved photon counting was used to separate the different photon states emitted from a strongly attenuated laser source. We first describe a method to quantify the efficiency of our gated avalanche photo-detector, by relying on known Poissonian statistics. The detector was then optimized under different temperature and bias voltage conditions using the noise equivalent power as a metric. Finally, coherent pulses are sent into a ring cavity, such that the tapped output from the cavity forms a series of time multiplexed pulses, which then yield the photon counting statistics. We observed good agreement between theoretical estimates and experimental observations, to as low as 0.01% probability of detection.

DOI
10.1117/12.875170

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Detectors that can resolve photon number are needed in many quantum information technologies. In order to be useful in quantum information processing, such detectors should be simple, easy to use, and be scalable to resolve any number of photons, as the application may require great portability such as in quantum cryptography. Here we describe the construction of a time-multiplexed detector, which uses a pair of standard avalanche photodiodes operated in Geiger mode. The detection technique is analysed theoretically and tested experimentally using a pulsed source of weak coherent light.
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Single-photon detectors are essential for implementing optical quantum technologies, such as quantum key distribution, and for enhancing optical imaging systems such as lidar, while also playing a crucial role in studying the statistical properties of light. In this work, we show how the underlying photon statistics can be revealed by using a threshold detector, implemented as a Josephson parametric amplifier operating near a first-order phase transition. We describe the detection protocol, which utilizes a series of pumping pulses followed by the observation of activated switching events. The acquired data are analyzed using two binomial tests, and the results are compared to a theoretical model that takes into account the photon statistics of the microwave field, with additional validation provided by computer simulations. We show that these tests provide conclusive evidence for the Poissonian statistics in the case of a coherent state, in agreement with the experimental data. In addition, this method enables us to distinguish between different statistics of the incoming probe field. Our approach is broadly applicable to standard non-photon-number-resolving detectors, offering a practical pathway to characterize photon statistics in quantum microwave and optical systems.
Abstract Measurement of photon statistics is an important tool for the verification of quantum properties of light. Due to the various imperfections of real single photon detectors, the observed statistics of photon counts deviates from the underlying statistics of photons. Here we analyze statistical properties of coherent states, and investigate a connection between Poissonian distribution of photons and sub-Poissonian distribution of photon counts due to the detector dead-time corrections. We derive a functional dependence between the mean number of photons and the mean number of photon counts, as well as connection between higher-order statistical moments, for the pulsed or continuous wave coherent light sources, and confirm the results by numerical simulations.