Axions and axion-like particles are well-motivated dark matter candidates. We propose an experiment that uses single photon detection interferometry to search for axions and axion-like particles in the galactic halo. We show that photon counting with a dark rate of 6E-6 Hz can improve the quantum sensitivity of axion interferometry by a factor of 50 compared to the quantum-enhanced heterodyne readout for 5-m long optical resonators. The proposed experimental method has the potential to be scaled up to kilometer-long facilities, enabling the detection or setting of constraints on the axion-photon coupling coefficient of 1E-17 - 1E-16 GeV-1 for axion masses ranging from 0.1 to 1 neV.
@article{arxiv.2309.03394,
title = {Photon counting for axion interferometry},
author = {Haocun Yu and Ohkyung Kwon and Hartmut Grote and Denis Martynov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.03394},
year = {2025}
}