Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Limits to single photon detection: Amplification

Presenting Author: Tzula Propp, University of Oregon
Contributing Author(s): Steven J van Enk

We have constructed a model of photo detection that is both idealized and realistic enough to calculate the limits and tradeoffs inherent to single photon detector (SPD) figures of merit. This model consists of three parts: transmission, amplification, and measurement. In this talk, we discuss the effects of signal amplification post-filtering; by first writing correct commutator-preserving transformations for non-linear photon-number amplification (e.g. avalanche photodiode, electron-hole pair creation, electron shelving), we derive alternative noise limits that out- perform the well-known Caves limits for linear amplification of bosonic mode amplitudes and possess no zero-temperature noise contribution to boson number SNR. We then discuss the optimistic implications for single photon detection. Lastly, we briefly discuss the pre-amplification filtering process (transmission) along with the construction of POVMs completely describing photo detectors (measurement), from which one can calculate all standard SPD figures of merit.

Read this article online: https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-27-16-23454

(Session 9c : Sunday from 5:15pm - 5:45pm)