Absolute calibration of an EMCCD camera by quantum correlation, linking photon counting to the analog regime

Abstract

We show how the same setup and procedure, exploiting spatially multimode quantum correlations, allows the absolute calibration of an electron-multiplying charge-coupled (EMCCD) camera from the analog regime down to the single-photon-counting level, just by adjusting the brightness of the quantum source. At the single-photon level, an EMCCD can be operated as an on-off detector, where quantum efficiency depends on the discriminating threshold. We develop a simple model to explain the connection of the two different regimes demonstrating that the efficiency estimated in the analog (bright) regime allows us to accurately predict the detector behavior in the photocounting regime and vice versa. This work establishes a bridge between two regions of the optical measurements that up to now have been based on completely different standards, detectors, and measurement techniques.

Noise Reduction in Photon Counting by Exploiting Spatial Correlations

“…Among others, these detectors have been applied for the investigation of photon-number correlations in weak twin beams containing up to hundreds of photon pairs per pulse [11,12] as well as to the measurement of spatial correlations in the fields composed of many photon pairs [6,7,[13][14][15][16]. We note that back-illuminated CCD cameras [17][18][19] as well as electron-multiplying CCD (EM-CCD) cameras [20] represent an alternative to iCCD cameras in these experiments: They have much higher detection efficiencies but also much higher levels of noise.…”

Detection of 15 dB Squeezed States of Light and their Application for the Absolute Calibration of Photoelectric Quantum Efficiency

“…For laser power in the mW range, radiation standards provide a measurement uncertainty at 1064 nm of around 0.2% [27]. For the regime of photon-numberresolving photodetectors quantum correlations of singlephoton pairs generated via parametric down-conversion have been used as an absolute calibration technique, for example [28][29][30][31], and accuracies at the level of parts in 10 3 have been achieved [32].…”

General Model of Photon-Pair Detection with an Image Sensor

“…defienne@princeton.edu Both electron multiplying (EM) [20][21][22] and intensified CCD [23] cameras have been used to perform highdimensional measurements. A threshold applied on the measured images allows them to operate effectively as multi-pixel single-photon counters [24,25]. Recent works have revealed some features of entanglement between pairs of photons generated by SPDC [20,21], but these techniques have not retrieved the full characteristics the photon pairs, i.e., their full joint probability distribution.…”