Beyond Antibunching: Photon Correlation Analysis Reveals Blinking Origin
Abstract
A variety of quantum emitters compete in the quest for the best single-photon source for photonic quantum technologies. Consequently, only a consistent approach to analyze the second-order auto correlation function allows comparison of the multi-photon contribution (g(2)(0)) of different sources. However, the community employs different and inconsistent methods for blinking sources, leading to incomparable benchmarks of source quality. Here, we use the emission of an inherently non-blinking quantum dot (QD) and apply artificial blinking through two different mechanisms: masking the recorded raw data in post-processing and emulation of a blinking system by gating the laser excitation pulses. We then compare the g(2)(0) values with the non-blinking result. For the analysis, we investigate five estimators of g(2)(0) actively used in the literature. While fitting the envelope of the correlations on long-time scales with the correct blinking model is the best choice, normalizing to the Poisson level gives by far the worst proximity. Furthermore, we test our predictive model to identify the underlying blinking mechanism of a QD in a circular Bragg grating cavity.
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BibTeX
@misc{kallert2026beyond,
title = {{Beyond Antibunching: Photon Correlation Analysis Reveals Blinking Origin}},
author = {Patricia Kallert and Santiago Bermúdez-Feijóo and Giorgio De Pascalis and Nicolas Claro-Rodriguez and Ioannis Caltzidis and Normen Auler and Eva Berger and Rebecca Aschwanden and Tobias Krieger and Saimon. F. Covre da Silva and Sandra Stroj and Quirin Buchinger and Michele B. Rota and Thomas Hummel and Sven Höfling and Armando Rastelli and Rinaldo Trotta and Dirk Reuter and Sonja Barkhofen and Klaus D. Jöns and Tobias Huber-Loyola},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.28139},
eprint = {2609.28139},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28139},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Beyond Antibunching: Photon Correlation Analysis Reveals Blinking Origin
AU - Patricia Kallert
AU - Santiago Bermúdez-Feijóo
AU - Giorgio De Pascalis
AU - Nicolas Claro-Rodriguez
AU - Ioannis Caltzidis
AU - Normen Auler
AU - Eva Berger
AU - Rebecca Aschwanden
AU - Tobias Krieger
AU - Saimon. F. Covre da Silva
AU - Sandra Stroj
AU - Quirin Buchinger
AU - Michele B. Rota
AU - Thomas Hummel
AU - Sven Höfling
AU - Armando Rastelli
AU - Rinaldo Trotta
AU - Dirk Reuter
AU - Sonja Barkhofen
AU - Klaus D. Jöns
AU - Tobias Huber-Loyola
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.28139
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28139
AB - A variety of quantum emitters compete in the quest for the best single-photon source for photonic quantum technologies. Consequently, only a consistent approach to analyze the second-order auto correlation function allows comparison of the multi-photon contribution (g^(2)(0)) of different sources. However, the community employs different and inconsistent methods for blinking sources, leading to incomparable benchmarks of source quality. Here, we use the emission of an inherently non-blinking quantum dot (QD) and apply artificial blinking through two different mechanisms: masking the recorded raw data in post-processing and emulation of a blinking system by gating the laser excitation pulses. We then compare the g^(2)(0) values with the non-blinking result. For the analysis, we investigate five estimators of g^(2)(0) actively used in the literature. While fitting the envelope of the correlations on long-time scales with the correct blinking model is the best choice, normalizing to the Poisson level gives by far the worst proximity. Furthermore, we test our predictive model to identify the underlying blinking mechanism of a QD in a circular Bragg grating cavity.
ER -