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arXiv:quant-ph/0511093 · Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Possibility of absolute calibration of analog detectors by using parametric downconversion: a systematic study

G. Brida, Marco Genovese, Ivano Ruo Berchera, Maria V. Chekhova, Alexander N. Penin

Published Sep 28, 2006• 45 citations
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Abstract

Prompted by the need for various studies ranging from quantum information to foundations of quantum mechanics, we systematically study the possibility of the absolute calibration of analog photodetectors based on the properties of parametric amplifiers. Our results show that such a method can be effectively developed with interesting possible applications in metrology.

DOI
10.1364/josab.23.002185

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Prompted by the need for various studies ranging from quantum information to foundations of quantum mechanics, we systematically study the possibility of the absolute calibration of analog photodetectors based on the properties of parametric amplifiers. Our results show that such a method can be effectively developed with interesting possible applications in metrology.
Spontaneous parametric down conversion has been largely exploited as a tool for absolute calibration of photon counting detectors, photomultiplier tubes or avalanche photodiodes working in the Geiger regime. In this work we investigate the extension of this technique from very low photon flux of the photon counting regime to the absolute calibration of analog photodetectors at higher photon flux. Moving towards a higher photon rate, i.e. at a high gain regime, the spontaneous parametric down conversion shows the intrinsic limitations of the method, while the stimulated parametric down conversion process, where a seed beam is properly injected into the crystal in order to increase the photon generation rate in the conjugate arm, allows us to work around this problem. A preliminary uncertainty budget is discussed.
A modified Klyshko method for standardless calibration of analog photodetector efficiencies is suggested and experimentally implemented. The method is based on the measurement of the number of incident photons using correlation properties of biphotons generated under spontaneous parametric downconversion, and on the determination of the mean number of discrete elementary responses of a photodetector by deconvoluting the statistical distribution of the output photocurrents. As an example, the generalized efficiency of an analog photomultiplier is measured as the ratio of the average number of elementary current responses to the average number of incident photons. The statistical properties of the elementary responses of an analog photodetector depend not only on the detector itself, but also on the parameters of the subsequent electronic circuit. Nevertheless, it has been shown that the generalized efficiency determined by this way allows one to calibrate the photon fluxes by the analog photodetector without involvement of any reference sources or detectors.
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.