  We present the characterization of a novel balanced homodyne detector
operating in the mid-infrared. The challenging task of revealing
non-classicality in mid-infrared light, e.~g. in quantum cascade lasers
emission, requires a high-performance detection system. Through the intensity
noise power spectral density analysis of the differential signal coming from
the incident radiation, we show that our setup is shot-noise limited. We
discuss the experimental results with a view to possible applications to
quantum technologies, such as free-space quantum communication.
