Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Towards absolute calibration of single photon detectors with high accuracy

Presenting Author: Sujeet Pani, University of New Mexico CQuIC
Contributing Author(s): Duncan Earl, Francisco Elohim Becerra

Single photon detectors (SPD) are ubiquitous in many protocols for quantum communications and quantum information processing. Many of these applications critically depend on precise knowledge of the detection efficiency of these detectors. Different methods for determining the efficiency of SPDs have been pursued including the use of transfer standard detectors and different sources of light. A method based on the use of a source of quantum correlated photon pairs provides means for realizing the absolute calibration of SPDs with high accuracy [1]. Given the nature of the generation process in the sources of photon pairs, every time a photon is detected, in principle there is absolute certainty that a second photon exists. This information provides a natural way for measuring the detection efficiency of a SPD in absolute terms [2]. We investigate the potential for implementing this calibration method based on a commercial source of quantum correlated photons for on-site calibration of SPDs without requiring any standard. We compare this calibration method with the method based on transfer standard detectors using stable laser sources. We observe that since efficiency of the source is important in this calibration method, accurate characterization of the source could be a viable way for realizing on-site absolute detector calibration. [1] D. N. Klyshko, Sov. J. Quant. Elect. 10, 1112–1116 (1980) [2] S. V. Polyakov, et al., Opt. Express 15(4), 1390–1407 (2007)

(Session 5 : Thursday from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm)