Autonomous absolute calibration of an ICCD camera in single-photon detection regime

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates autonomous, self-calibration of an ICCD camera's quantum efficiency in single-photon detection mode across different thresholds and wavelengths, without external detectors.

Contribution

It introduces a method for autonomous absolute calibration of ICCD cameras using the Klyshko technique, enabling self-calibration without additional detectors.

Findings

Quantum efficiency varies with threshold and wavelength.

Homogeneity of photon sensitivity is characterized.

Self-calibration of ICCD camera is successfully demonstrated.

Abstract

Intensified charge coupled device (ICCD) cameras are widely used in various applications such as microscopy, astronomy, spectroscopy. Often they are used as single-photon detectors, with thresholding being an essential part of the readout. In this paper, we measure the quantum efficiency of an ICCD camera in the single-photon detection mode using the Klyshko absolute calibration technique. The quantum efficiency is obtained as a function of the threshold value and of the wavelength of the detected light. In addition, we study the homogeneity of the photon sensitivity over the camera chip area. The experiment is performed in the autonomous regime, without using any additional detectors. We therefore demonstrate the self-calibration of an ICCD camera.