Calibration of free-space and fiber-coupled single-photon detectors

Metrologia. 2020;57(1):10.1088/1681-7575/ab4a9c. doi: 10.1088/1681-7575/ab4a9c.

Abstract

We measure the detection efficiency of single-photon detectors at wavelengths near 851 nm and 1533.6 nm. We investigate the spatial uniformity of one free-space-coupled single-photon avalanche diode and present a comparison between fusion-spliced and connectorized fiber-coupled single-photon detectors. We find that our expanded relative uncertainty for a single measurement of the detection efficiency is as low as 0.70% for fiber-coupled measurements at 1533.6 nm and as high as 1.78% for our free-space characterization at 851.7 nm. The detection-efficiency determination includes corrections for afterpulsing, dark count, and count-rate effects of the single-photon detector with the detection efficiency interpolated to operation at a specified detected count rate.

Keywords: single photon avalanche photodiode; single photon detector calibration; single photon detector efficiency; superconducting nanowire single photon detector.