Intensified Tpx3Cam, a fast data-driven optical camera with nanosecond timing resolution for single photon detection in quantum applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces Tpx3Cam, a high-speed, nanosecond-resolution optical camera capable of single photon detection, suitable for quantum applications, with demonstrated performance in photon pair measurements and energy anti-correlation.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel data-driven optical camera with nanosecond timing resolution and single photon sensitivity, optimized for quantum measurement applications.

Findings

Achieved 3 ns timing resolution for single photons.

Successfully detected and characterized photon pairs from SPDC source.

Demonstrated energy anti-correlation in photon pairs.

Abstract

We describe a fast data-driven optical camera, Tpx3Cam, with nanosecond scale timing resolution and 80 Mpixel/sec throughput. After the addition of intensifier, the camera is single photon sensitive with quantum efficiency determined primarily by the intensifier photocathode. The single photon performance of the camera was characterized with results on the gain, timing resolution and afterpulsing reported here. The intensified camera was successfully used for measurements in a variety of applications including quantum applications. As an example of such application, which requires simultaneous detection of multiple photons, we describe registration of photon pairs from the spontaneous parametric down-conversion source in a spectrometer. We measured the photon wavelength and timing with respective precisions of 0.15~nm and 3~ns, and also demonstrated that the two photons are anti-correlated in energy.