Photon-Number-Resolving Transition-Edge Sensors for the Metrology of Quantum Light Sources

Microlasers are ideal candidates to bring the fascinating variety of nonlinear complex dynamics found in delay-coupled systems to the realm of quantum optics. Particularly attractive is the possibility of tailoring the devices' emission properties via non-invasive delayed optical coupling. However, until now scarce research has been done in this direction. Here, we experimentally and theoretically investigate the effects of delayed optical feedback on the mode-switching dynamics of an electrically driven bimodal quantum-dot micropillar laser, characterizing its impact on the micropillar's output power, optical spectrum and photon statistics. Feedback is found to influence the switching dynamics and its characteristics time scales. In addition, stochastic switching is reduced with the subsequent impact on the microlaser photon statistics. Our results contribute to the comprehension of feedback-induced phenomena in micropillar lasers and pave the way towards the external control and tailoring of the properties of these key systems for the nanophotonics community.

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“…The histogram of the photon-number distribution is then extracted from 50000 trigger events with a detection efficiency of 87 % [34].…”

Section: Devices Under Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailoring the mode-switching dynamics in quantum-dot micropillar lasers via time-delayed optical feedback

Holzinger¹,

Redlich²,

Lingnau³

et al. 2018

Opt. Express

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“…This compact custom-made state-of-the-art detection system enables detections efficiencies of >87% in the spectral region of interest (850-950 nm) and discriminates photon numbers of up to 25. A detailed characterization of the PNR detection system is reported in [17]. For the PNR experiments, it was additionally necessary to reduce the excitation repetition rate to 1 MHz by pulse picking the excitation laser (80 MHz repetition rate), to accommodate for the thermal recovery time (∼1 μs) of the TES chips.…”

Section: Photon-number-resolving Detection Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this purpose we analyse the pulse area of measured time traces. It is worth mentioning, that other methods for evaluating the time traces are possible, such as the principal component analysis or simply the pulse height [17]. In this case, the pulse-area analysis in combination with moderate constraints to the pulse shape (i.e.…”

Section: Photon-number-resolving Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum metrology of solid-state single-photon sources using photon-number-resolving detectors

et al. 2019

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Quantum-light sources based on semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are promising candidates for many applications in quantum photonics and quantum communication. Important emission characteristics of such emitters, namely the single-photon purity and photon indistinguishability, are usually assessed via time-correlated measurements using standard 'click' detectors in Hanbury Brown and Twiss or Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM-) type configurations. In this work, we employ a state-of-theart photon-number-resolving (PNR) detection system based on superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs) to directly access the photon-number distribution of deterministically fabricated solidstate single-photon sources. Offering quantum efficiencies close to unity and high energy resolution, our TES-based two-channel detector system allows us to analyse the quantum optical properties of a QD-based non-classical light source. In particular, it enables the direct observation of the two-particle Fock-state resulting from interference of quantum mechanically indistinguishable photons in HOMexperiments. Additionally, comparative measurements reveal excellent quantitative agreement of the photon-indistinguishabilities obtained with PNR ((90±7)%) and standard click ((90±5)%) detectors. Our work thus demonstrates that TES-based detectors are perfectly suitable for the quantum metrology of non-classical light sources and higlights appealing prospects for the efficient implementation of quantum information tasks based on multi-photon states.

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“…Photon-number resolving (PNR) single-photon detectors allow the direct characterization of photon number (PN) states of an arbitrary photon source [1] and the direct measurement of a photon-number correlation which can be used for quantum enhanced metrology [2] or for quantum optical communication [3]. Random numbers for quantum cryptography can be generated using a PNR detector [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of a Photon-Number Resolving SNSPD Using Poissonian and Sub-Poissonian Light

Schmidt

Reutter

Schwartz

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.

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Photon-number resolving (PNR) single-photon detectors are of interest for a wide range of applications in the emerging field of photon based quantum technologies. Especially photonic integrated circuits will pave the way for a high complexity and ease of use of quantum photonics. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are of special interest since they combine a high detection efficiency and a high timing accuracy with a high count rate and they can be configured as PNR-SNSPDs. Here, we present a PNR-SNSPD with a four photon resolution suitable for waveguide integration operating at a temperature of 4 K. A high statistical accuracy for the photon number is achieved for a Poissonian light source at a photon flux below 5 photons/pulse with a detection efficiency of 22.7 ± 3.0 % at 900 nm and a pulse rate frequency of 76 MHz. We demonstrate the ability of such a detector to discriminate a sub-Poissonian from a Poissonian light source.

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Photon-Number-Resolving Transition-Edge Sensors for the Metrology of Quantum Light Sources

Cited by 66 publications

References 13 publications

Tailoring the mode-switching dynamics in quantum-dot micropillar lasers via time-delayed optical feedback

Tailoring the mode-switching dynamics in quantum-dot micropillar lasers via time-delayed optical feedback

Quantum metrology of solid-state single-photon sources using photon-number-resolving detectors

Characterization of a Photon-Number Resolving SNSPD Using Poissonian and Sub-Poissonian Light

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