Advanced sources of entangled photon pairs

id Quantique is a Geneva based company researching and developing opportunities offered by quantum photonics. It commercialises single-photon detectors, quantum random number generators and quantum cryptography solutions. id Quantique is involved in the work package 3.2 entitled “Advanced sources of entangled photon pairs”, where it focuses on the development of single-photon detectors, which are essential to characterize entangled photon pairs and key building blocks of most quantum information processing experiments. id Quantique has developed single-photon detectors sensitive in the visible part of the spectrum (400 – 800 nm), fabricated using complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology. CMOS detectors (see Figure) exhibit good efficiency and noise performance, and are extremely robust. Moreover, this technology allows monolithic integration of avalanche photodiodes with processing electronics, which improves the overall performance, and is cost effective. These detectors were presented at the Photonics Europe 2006 conference [1].

In order to allow the integration of these detectors in complex set-ups, a component packaged in a standard TO package, which includes a detector chip (avalanche photodiode and processing electronics) as well as a temperature sensor mounted and a thermoelectric cooler, was developed. This single-photon detector exhibits the smallest form factor worldwide. The device was presented at the Optics East 2006 conference [2].

As CMOS technology has a high yield and is very homogenous, it will allow development of large detector arrays for the visible spectral range, incorporating processing and quenching electronics. Such arrays would not only make it possible to realize compact multi-pixel detectors, but they would also enable the development of photon number resolving detectors. By connecting the Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes in parallel and ensuring that the optical signal is spread over the whole array, one obtains a signal that is proportional to the number of photons detected. This type of detector works in a similar way to photomultipliers and is thus known as a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). This technology currently generates a lot of interest, with companies such as Hamamatsu Photonics having active development projects. A compact and robust detector allowing photon number resolution will have many applications in quantum information processing. id Quantique will investigate the development of SiPM detectors.
 

List of Publications

QAP

[1] "CMOS: a promising technology for future single photon detection applications", A. Rochas, A. Pauchard, L. Monat, O. Guinnard, A. Matteo and G. Ribordy, Photonics Europe, April 2006, Strasbourg (FR).

[2] "Ultra-compact CMOS single photon detector", A. Rochas, A. Pauchard, L. Monat, A. Matteo, P. Trinkler, R. Thew, G. Ribordy, oral presentation, Proceedings of Optics East, October 2006, Boston (USA).

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