Coincidence-Pumping Upconversion Detector Based on Passively Synchronized Fiber Laser System

We experimentally demonstrated a high-performance frequency upconversion detector for telecom-band photons based on a passively synchronized fiber laser system. The involved coincidence pumping technique enabled to spectrally convert the pulsed infrared photons into the visible regime with a conversion efficiency of 72%. The overall detection efficiency of the upconversion detector reached to 30% with a low noise equivalent power of 3 × 10-17W/Hz1/2. In contrast to previous demonstrations, the whole upconversion detection system was constructed in an all-polarization-maintaining fiber structure, thus favoring substantial improvement of compactness and robustness. Moreover, the long-term stability was manifested by at least ten-hour operation with a relative fluctuation of count rates as small as 0.26%. The achieved features here would be desirable in many practical applications requiring efficient and robust coherent manipulation of pulsed optical fields by nonlinear frequency conversion.