Single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors, have a great importance in fields like quantum key distribution, laser ranging, florescence microscopy, etc. Afterpulsing is a non-ideal behavior of SPADs that adversely affects any application that measures the number or timing of detection events. Several studies based on a few individual detectors, derived distinct mathematical models from semiconductor physics perspectives. With a consistent testing procedure and statistically large data sets, we show that different individual detectors - even if identical in type, make, brand, etc. - behave according to fundamentally different mathematical models. Thus, every detector must be characterized individually and it is wrong to draw universal conclusions about the physical meaning behind these models. We also report the presence of high-order afterpulses that are not accounted for in any of the standard models.

The unification of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics is a long-standing challenge in contemporary physics. Experimental techniques in quantum optics have only recently reached the maturity required for the investigation of quantum systems under the influence of non-inertial motion, such as being held at rest in gravitational fields, or subjected to uniform accelerations. Here, we report on experiments in which a genuine quantum state of an entangled photon pair is exposed to a series of different accelerations. We measure an entanglement witness for g-values ranging from 30 mg to up to 30 g—under free-fall as well on a spinning centrifuge—and have thus derived an upper bound on the effects of uniform acceleration on photonic entanglement.