Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)
Operational Description of Single-Photon Detectors Including Timing-Jitter Effects
Élie Gouzien, Bruno Fedrici, François Mondain, Alessandro Zavatta, Sébastien Tanzilli, Virginia D’Auria
Abstract
Discrete variable quantum optics stands as one of the most prominent platform for quantum technologies with an increasing number of encouraging out-of-the-laboratory implementations [1]. The quest for competitive quantum photonic systems, compatible with future engineered systems, has promoted huge developments concerning both source and detection devices [2]. To date, a critical point lies in experiments' operation rates. Time multiplexing technics allow in principle to pump photonic sources at rates on the order of the GHz [3]. However, a strong limitation to ultra-fast operation lies in timing errors at the detection stage. Limited resolution directly affects the quality of any time-correlated single photon counting or quantum state engineering operations [3]. In particular, single photon detector's timing-jitters lead counts associated with a given optical clock cycle to appear as temporally indistinguishable from those corresponding to neighbouring ones [2].