Analysis of counting measurements on narrowband frequency up-converted single photons and the influence of heralding detector dead time

Abstract

We present a theoretical model of photon counting measurements on conditionally generated narrowband single-photon states that are produced via cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion, then frequency up-converted from the telecom wavelength of 1550 nm to the visible wavelength of 532 nm. The highly nonclassical character of the up-converted states is certified by a quantum non-Gaussianity witness that is determined from coincidence measurements with single-photon detectors in a Hanbury-Brown--Twiss configuration. We find our model in good agreement with the experimental data, and we investigate a useful effect caused by the dead time of the trigger detector, whose clicks herald conditional preparation of the single-photon state. Due to the dead time, a click of the trigger detector excludes the possibility of a trigger event at a certain preceding time interval, during which the measured idler beam is thus projected onto a vacuum state. Due to quantum correlations between signal and idler beams, this reduces the multiphoton contributions in the conditionally generated state of the signal beam and accordingly increases the value of the quantum non-Gaussianity witness. We also show that spurious heralding detections due to after-pulsing can be suppressed by accepting a click of the trigger detector only if its distance from a previous click of this detector exceeds a certain suitably chosen threshold.