Single-Photon Detectors

A wide range of applications (integrated quantum optics, spectroscopy, time-of-flight ranging and imaging, quantum key distribution, security, etc.) require receiving systems based on detectors sensitive to excitations on a level of single-photon only. In the SPD course of lectures, single-photon detectors based on the interaction of light with metals, semiconductors, and superconductors will be considered in terms of physics of their response mechanisms, technology, and phenomena which determine and limit their characteristics important for applications. The course is proposed to students who are interesting in material research, development of optical applications, and study of physical processes in metals, semiconductors, and superconductors excited by a quantum of electromagnetic radiation.