Precise Monte Carlo simulation of single-photon detectors

We demonstrate the importance and utility of Monte Carlo simulation of single-photon detectors. Devising an optimal simulation is strongly influenced by the particular application because of the complexity of modern, avalanche-diode based single-photon detectors. Using a simple yet very demanding example of random number generation via detection of Poissonian photons exiting a beam splitter, we present a Monte Carlo simulation that faithfully reproduces the serial autocorrelation of random bits as a function of detection frequency over four orders of magnitude of the incident photon flux. We conjecture that this simulation approach can be easily modified for use in many other applications.

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