Ultralow-noise single-photon detection based on precise temperature controlled photomultiplier with enhanced electromagnetic shielding

• 来源期刊: 中国光学快报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2017,（10）
• 页码范围: 7-10
• 页数: 4页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.3788/COL201715.100301

摘要

We demonstrate an ultralow-noise single-photon detection system based on a sensitive photomultiplier tube (PMT) with precise temperature control,which can capture fast single photons with intervals around 10 ns.By improvement of the electromagnetic shielding and introduction of the self-differencing method,the dark counts (DCs) are cut down to ～1％.We further develop an ultra-stable PMT cooling subsystem and observe that the DC goes down by a factor of 3.9 each time the temperature drops 10℃.At-20℃ it is reduced 400 times with respect to the room temperature (25℃),that is,it becomes only 2 counts per second,which is on par with the superconducting nanowire detectors.Meanwhile,despite a 50％ loss,the detection efficiency is still 13％.Our detector is available for ultra-precise single-photon detection in environments with strong electromagnetic disturbances.