Gerrits Thomas, Calkins Brice, Tomlin Nathan, Lita Adriana E, Migdall Alan, Mirin Richard, Nam Sae Woo
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.
Opt Express. 2012 Oct 8;20(21):23798-810. doi: 10.1364/OE.20.023798.
Typically, transition edge sensors resolve photon number of up to 10 or 20 photons, depending on the wavelength and TES design. We extend that dynamic range up to 1000 photons, while maintaining sub-shot noise detection process uncertainty of the number of detected photons and beyond that show a monotonic response up to ≈ 6 · 10(6) photons in a single light pulse. This mode of operation, which heats the sensor far beyond its transition edge into the normal conductive regime, offers a technique for connecting single-photon-counting measurements to radiant-power measurements at picowatt levels. Connecting these two usually incompatible operating regimes in a single detector offers significant potential for directly tying photon counting measurements to conventional cryogenic radiometric standards. In addition, our measurements highlight the advantages of a photon-number state source over a coherent pulse source as a tool for characterizing such a detector.
通常情况下，根据波长和过渡边缘传感器（TES）的设计，过渡边缘传感器可分辨多达10或20个光子的光子数。我们将该动态范围扩展到了1000个光子，同时保持检测到的光子数的亚散粒噪声检测过程不确定性，并且在此之上，在单个光脉冲中显示出高达≈6·10⁶个光子的单调响应。这种操作模式将传感器加热到远高于其过渡边缘进入正常导电状态，提供了一种将单光子计数测量与皮瓦级辐射功率测量相连接的技术。在单个探测器中连接这两种通常不兼容的操作模式，为将光子计数测量直接与传统低温辐射测量标准联系起来提供了巨大潜力。此外，我们的测量突出了光子数态源相对于相干脉冲源作为表征此类探测器工具的优势。
