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.
@article{arxiv.2304.11999,
title = {Fast data-driven spectrometer with direct measurement of time and frequency for multiple single photons},
author = {Jakub Jirsa and Sergei Kulkov and Raphael A. Abrahao and Jesse Crawford and Aaron Mueninghoff and Ermanno Bernasconi and Claudio Bruschini and Samuel Burri and Stephen Vintskevich and Michal Marcisovsky and Edoardo Charbon and Andrei Nomerotski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.11999},
year = {2025}
}