Quantum information in low light: New photo-detection scheme makes do with few photons
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - 08:00
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) —At low light, cats see better than humans. Electronic detectors do even better, but eventually they too become more prone to errors at very low light. The fundamental probabilistic nature of light makes it impossible to perfectly distinguish light from dark at very low intensity. However, by using quantum mechanics, one can find measurement schemes that can, at least for part of the time, perform measurements which are free of errors, even when the light intensity is very low.