Developing a photon-number-resolving detection chain for quantum communication protocols involving mesoscopic states of light

TL;DR

This paper details the development and characterization of a photon-number-resolving detection system using Silicon photomultipliers and FPGA processing, tested with classical and quantum light states.

Contribution

It introduces a novel detection chain with real-time processing capabilities and compares different SiPM models for mesoscopic quantum light detection.

Findings

Effective photon-number resolution achieved with SiPMs and FPGA

Performance varies with pixel pitch, pile-up, and efficiency

System suitable for quantum communication protocols

Abstract

We present the characterization of a photon-number-resolving detection chain based on Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) coupled to a 14 bit, 1 Gs\s digital acquisition system embedding an FPGA-based signal processing pipeline that performs real-time baseline subtraction, digital deconvolution, and charge integration. Three SiPM models manufactured by Hamamatsu are tested and compared in the mesoscopic intensity regime using both classical coherent states and quantum twin-beam states, enabling a systematic investigation of the effects of pixel pitch, pile-up, and photon detection efficiency on the detector performance.