Resolving Photon Numbers Using Ultra-High-Resolution Timing of a Single Low-Jitter Superconducting Nanowire Detector

2023/10/19 by Sauer, Gregor, Kolarczik, Mirco, Gomez, Rodrigo +2 · 3 citations
#FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2310.12472

Abstract

Photon-number-resolving (PNR) detectors are a key enabling technology in photonic quantum information processing. Here, we demonstrate the PNR capacity of conventional superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors by performing ultra-high-resolution time-tagging of the detector-generated electrical pulses. This method provides a viable approach for PNR with high detection efficiency and a high operational repetition rate. We present the implementation of such a PNR detector in the telecom C-band and its characterization by measuring the photon-number statistics of coherent light with tunable intensity. Additionally, we demonstrate the capabilities of the detection method by measuring photon-number correlations of non-classical states.

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• Benchmarking Gaussian and non-Gaussian input states with a hybrid sampling platform
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• Practical considerations for assignment of photon numbers with SNSPDs

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