Reconstruction of photon-number distribution using low-performance photon counters

Journal Article · Fri Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.74.063830· OSTI ID:20976573

Zambra, Guido ^[1]; Paris, Matteo G. A. ^[1]

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1. Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Universita di Milano, Milan (Italy)

The output of a photodetector consists of a current pulse whose charge has the statistical distribution of the actual photon numbers convolved with a Bernoulli distribution. Photodetectors are characterized by a nonunit quantum efficiency, i.e., not all the photons lead to a charge, and by a finite resolution, i.e., a different number of detected photons leads to a discriminable values of the charge only up to a maximum value. We present a detailed comparison, based on Monte Carlo simulated experiments and real data, among the performances of detectors with different upper limits of counting capability. In our scheme the inversion of Bernoulli convolution is performed by maximum-likelihood methods assisted by measurements taken at different quantum efficiencies. We show that detectors that are only able to discriminate between zero, one and more than one detected photons are generally enough to provide a reliable reconstruction of the photon number distribution for single-peaked distributions, while detectors with higher resolution limits do not lead to further improvements. In addition, we demonstrate that, for semiclassical states, even on/off detectors are enough to provide a good reconstruction. Finally, we show that a reliable reconstruction of multipeaked distributions requires either higher quantum efficiency or higher resolution.

• OSTI ID: 20976573
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 74; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CURRENTS
DISTRIBUTION
MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD FIT
MONTE CARLO METHOD
OPTICS
PERFORMANCE
PHOTODETECTORS
PHOTONS
PULSES
QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
RESOLUTION
SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATION