Fast data-driven spectrometer with direct measurement of time and frequency for multiple single photons

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-resolution, room-temperature single-photon spectrometer capable of simultaneous time and frequency measurement, enabling advanced applications in quantum and classical photonics.

Contribution

A novel, simple, room-temperature single-photon spectrometer with combined high spectral and temporal resolution, using a linear array of avalanche diodes and data-driven measurement techniques.

Findings

Achieves 0.04 nm spectral resolution

Attains 40 ps temporal resolution

Operates close to the Heisenberg limit for time-energy uncertainty

Abstract

We present a single-photon-sensitive spectrometer, based on a linear array of 512 single-photon avalanche diode detectors, with 0.04 nm spectral and 40 ps temporal resolutions. We employ a fast data-driven operation that allows direct measurement of time and frequency for simultaneous single photons, time- and frequency-stamping each single-photon detection. Our results combine excellent temporal and spectral resolution. We benchmark our result against the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle limit of hbar/2 for time and energy, and we are only a factor of 10 above it, despite the simplicity of our experimental setup, including room temperature operation. This work opens numerous applications in both classical and quantum photonics, especially when both spectral and temporal properties of single photons are exploited.