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A simple autocorrelation method for thoroughly characterizing single-photon detectors

Published

Author(s)

Michael Wayne, Joshua Bienfang, Sergey Polyakov

Abstract

We introduce and demonstrate a simple and highly sensitive method for characterizing single- photon detectors. This method is based on analyzing multi-order correlations among time-tagged detection events from a device under calibrated continuous-wave illumination. First- and second-order properties such as detection efficiency, dark count rate, afterpulse probability, dead time, and reset behavior are measured with high accuracy from a single data set, as well as higher-order properties such as higher-order afterpulse effects. While the technique is applicable to any type of click/no-click detector, we apply it to two different single-photon avalanche diodes, and we find that it reveals a heretofore unreported afterpulse effect due to detection events that occur during the device reset.
Citation
Optics Express
Volume
25
Issue
17

Keywords

Single photon detector, advanced statistics, quantum optics

Citation

Wayne, M. , Bienfang, J. and Polyakov, S. (2017), A simple autocorrelation method for thoroughly characterizing single-photon detectors, Optics Express, [online], https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.25.020352 (Accessed May 1, 2024)
Created August 20, 2017, Updated October 12, 2021