Related papers: Ultra-sensitive heterodyne detection at room tempe…
A room-temperature mid-infrared (9 um) heterodyne system based on high-performance unipolar optoelectronic devices is presented. The local oscillator (LO) is a quantum cascade laser, while the receiver is an antenna coupled quantum well…
Room temperature operation is mandatory for any optoelectronics technology which aims to provide low-cost compact systems for widespread applications. In recent years, an important technological effort in this direction has been made in…
In their article, Wang et al. [1] report a new scheme for THz heterodyne detection using a laser-driven LTG-GaAs photomixer [2, 3] and make the impressive claim of achieving near quantum-limited sensitivity at room temperature.…
Thanks to intrinsically short electronic relaxation on the ps time scale, III-V semiconductor unipolar devices are ideal candidates for ultrahigh-speed operation at mid-infrared frequencies. In this work, antenna-coupled, GaAs-based multi…
We design and fabricate large-area (1.1 mm $\times$ 1.1 mm) photonic crystal quantum cascade lasers, enabling single-mode (wavelength $\sim$ 8.5 $\mu$m) surface emission at room temperature, with a maximum peak power up to 176 mW. The beam…
Quantum cascade detectors (QCD) are unipolar infrared devices where the transport of the photo excited carriers takes place through confined electronic states, without an applied bias. In this photovoltaic mode, the detector's noise is not…
Because of the ultrafast and photon-driven nature of the transport in their active region, we demonstrate that quantum cascade lasers can be operated as resonantly amplified terahertz detectors. Tunable responsivities up to 50 V/W and noise…
The cross-correlation sensitivity of two identical balanced photodiode heterodyne receivers is characterized. Both balanced photodiodes receive the same weak signal split up equally, a situation equivalent to an astronomical spatial…
We propose an innovative strategy to discriminate between two coherent states affected by either uniform or gaussian phase noise. The strategy is based on a homodyne-like detection scheme with photon-number-resolving detectors in the regime…
A pulsed balanced homodyne detector has been developed for precise measurements of electric field quadratures of pulsed optical quantum states. A high level of common mode suppression (> 85 dB) and low electronic noise (730 electrons per…
Phase modulation is demonstrated in a quantum Stark effect modulator designed to operate in the mid-infrared at wavelength around 10 $\mu$m. Both phase and amplitude modulation are simultaneously resolved through the measurement of the…
The coupling of laser light to a mechanical oscillator via radiation pressure leads to the emergence of quantum mechanical correlations between the amplitude and phase quadrature of the laser beam. These correlations form a generic…
Ultrafast continuous-variable quantum states offer new opportunities for advanced quantum technologies, but efficient homodyne detection of these states remains challenging. Here, we present a method for efficient ultrafast homodyne…
The quantum nature of photonic systems is reflected in the photon statistics of the light they emit. Therefore, the development of quantum optics tools with single photon sensitivity and excellent temporal resolution is paramount to the…
The intensity noise of a laser source represents one of the key factors limiting the ultimate sensitivity in laser-based systems for sensing and telecommunication. For advanced applications based on interferometry, the availability of a…
Experimental tests of gravity's fundamental nature call for mechanical systems in the quantum regime while being sensitive to gravity. Torsion pendula, historically vital in studies of classical gravity, are ideal for extending…
Characterising quantum states of light in the 2 ${\mu}m$ band requires high-performance shot-noise limited detectors. Here, we present the characterisation of a homodyne detector that we use to observe vacuum shot-noise via homodyne…
Single photon detection is the underpinning technology for quantum communication and quantum sensing applications. At visible and near-infrared wavelengths, single-photon-detectors (SPDs) underwent a significant development in the past two…
It is believed that the quantum behaviors of homodyne detectors and traditional heterodyne detectors can be fully understood in the context of the quantum theory of optical detection. According to the theory, a 3 dB extra quantum noise has…
The radiation-pressure driven interaction of a coherent light field with a mechanical oscillator induces correlations between the amplitude and phase quadratures of the light. These correlations result in squeezed light -- light with…