Our natural desire to better understand the behavior in the world around us brought us the research field of quantum optics — the study of nature and effects of light as quantized photons. The rapidly evolving world of quantum optics has created a demand for a new generation of high performance detectors that can accurately … Continue reading
The results of new research from a collaboration between ID Quantique and GAP at the University of Geneva has been recently published in Physical Review Applied. This paper, titled “Fast High-Efficiency Photon-Number-Resolving Parallel Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector” shows a high-performance SNSPD, based on a novel parallel design enabling fast, high-efficiency photon-number resolution (PNR). The paper … Continue reading
Photonis single-photon-detection solutions are based on vacuum-tube detector technology. This technology combines high detection efficiency (QE) with an extremely low amount of dark counts (dark noise). After pulsing, the phenomenon in which a detector generates a pulse after it already has detected a photon is minimal, and dead time is non-existent. Photonis’s patented high-end microchannel … Continue reading
In a research project led by the University of Geneva, ID Quantique (IDQ) has contributed to the development of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on integrated silicon photonics that can transmit secure keys at unprecedented speeds. The goal of this project is to show how the use of integrated photonics will provide compactness, low cost, … Continue reading
Photon-number-resolving (PNR) and high speed detection of single photons are important for many applications in quantum information science. These include linear optical quantum computing, Gaussian boson sampling, improved heralded single-photon sources, quantum key distribution, and quantum network protocols based on quantum repeaters. In this short video Félix Bussières, VP Research and Technology at ID Quantique … Continue reading
Detecting single photons is hard. Not because they are strange wonders of quantum mechanics, but because there are simply too many of them. One has a similar problem counting the number of drops of water in the ocean. It is relatively simple to turn a single particle of light into a machine-readable signal. Photomultiplier tubes … Continue reading