Re: A Bi-CMOS electronic photonic integrated circuit quantum light detector

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

On 5/30/24 13:39, Phil Hobbs wrote:

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

On 5/30/24 06:56, Jan Panteltje wrote:

World's smallest quantum light detector on a silicon chip
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240517164111.htm
Source:
University of Bristol
Summary:
Researchers have made an important breakthrough in scaling quantum
technology by integrating the world's tiniest quantum light detector
onto a silicon chip.
 
Interesting is the circuit, figure 1 in
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk6890
 
the photo diodes dare used as pull-up and pull down to teh transistor base.
 
Quantum talk everywhere,
but interesting noise cancellation after the beam splitter.
Anybody knows the basics of this?

 
The very first word of their abstract has a spelling error. That
doesn't bode well for the rest.
 
Anyway, it appears the quantum crowd is discovering the advantages
of synchronous detection, as has been used for ages in lock-in
amplifiers. They call it 'homodyne'. OK, fine.
 
Jeroen Belleman
 
 
 

 
“Quantum detector” means a device that detects light one carrier pair per
time, such as a photodiode or phototube.  There are other sorts, e.g.
microbolometers.

It was my understanding that all light detectors are quantum detectors,
even bolometers. It's very clear in superconducting edge detectors.
 

 
Homodyne detection is just a word for an interferometer with no frequency
shift. No woo-woo stuff, apart from photodection itself, which is deeply
mysterious when you really think about it.
 
Cheers
 
Phil Hobbs
 

 
I'm not really surprised that interactions between waves and matter
are quantized, but I'd love to find a classical argument to explain
the value of Planck's constant.
 
Jeroen Belleman
 
 

Superconducting bolometers are different beasts   Normal ones respond to
the total incident power rather than the rate of detection events.

At bottom, the interaction between light and matter is quantized, of
course, but the distinction between quantum detectors and other sorts is a
useful one.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs



--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics