Absolute calibration of single-photon and multiplexed photon-number-resolving detectors
Lior Cohen, Y. Pilnyak, D. Istrati, Nicholas M Studer, Jonathan P. Dowling, H. S. Eisenberg · Physical Review A · 2018
Single-photon detectors are widely used in modern quantum optics experiments and applications. Like all detectors, it is important for these devices to be accurately calibrated. A single-photon detector is calibrated by determining its detection efficiency; the common method to measure this quantity requires comparison to another detector. Here, we suggest a method to measure the detection efficiency of a single-photon detector without requiring an external reference detector. Our method is valid for individual single-photon detectors as well as multiplexed detectors, which are known to be photon number resolving. The method exploits the even-number photon-statistics of a nonlinear source, as well as the nonlinear loss of a single-photon detector that occurs when multiple photons are incident simultaneously. We have analytically modeled multiplexed detectors and used the results to experimentally demonstrate the calibration of a single-photon detector without the need for an external reference detector.