A Simple and Robust Balanced Homodyne Detector for High-Repetition-Rate Pulsed Sources

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.06994v1
• Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:11:51 GMT
• Title: A Simple and Robust Balanced Homodyne Detector for High-Repetition-Rate Pulsed Sources
• Abstract summary: A homodyne detector is designed for optimized high-repetition-rate (100 MHz) pulsed optical sources.<n>A theoretical model describing the detector response, noise, and pulse-to-pulse correlations is developed.<n>The detector exhibits excellent linearity and shot-noise-limited scaling of the signal variance with optical power.
• Score: 0.4618037115403289
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: We design and experimentally characterize a balanced homodyne detector optimized for high-repetition-rate (100 MHz) pulsed optical sources. Unlike conventional transimpedance-amplifier architectures, which suffer from nonlinearities and dynamic instabilities with ultrashort pulses, our approach allows to directly amplify the photocurrent extracted at the common photodiode node without feedback loops. A theoretical model describing the detector response, noise, and pulse-to-pulse correlations is developed, providing quantitative predictions for the signal variance, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and inter-pulse correlations. Implemented with two matched InGaAs photodiodes illuminated by a 1030 nm mode-locked laser at 100 MHz, the detector exhibits excellent linearity and shot-noise-limited scaling of the signal variance with optical power. Optimizing the temporal integration window yields a maximum SNR of about 14 dB, while correlation measurements confirm negligible inter-pulse correlations. These results demonstrate that the proposed architecture offers a robust and simple solution for high-speed pulsed homodyne detection, suitable for quantum optics and continuous-variable quantum information applications.

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