Optimizing Silicon photomultipliers for Quantum Optics

Silicon Photomultipliers are potentially ideal detectors for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information studies based on mesoscopic states of light. However, their non-idealities hampered their use so far. An optimal mode of operation has been developed and it is presented here, proving that this class of sensors can actually be exploited for the characterization of both classical and quantum properties of light.