14 MHz rate photon counting with room temperature InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes
Authors: Paul L. Voss1; Kahraman G. Köprülü1; Sang-Kyung Choi2; Sarah Dugan1; Prem Kumar1
Source: Journal of Modern Optics, Volume 51, Numbers 9-10, 15 June-10 July 2004 , pp. 1369-1379(11)
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd
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Abstract:
We have developed high speed gated-mode single-photon counters based on InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes for use at 1.55
m wavelength. Operation at room temperature allows afterpulse probability to be below 0.2% for gate rates up to 14 MHz. We obtained optimum noise-equivalent power of 2.2 × 10-15 W Hz-1/2 at 14% quantum efficiency with dark-count probability of 0.2%. We propose a metric (noise-equivalent power divided by gate frequency) for comparing high speed photon counters and show that for this metric our system outperforms previously reported counters at 1.55 m wavelength. We demonstrate that for gate widths of a nanosecond or below, the differing amplitude distributions of dark versus light counts allow an optimal decision threshold to be set for a given bias voltage.
Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.1080/09500340410001670857
Affiliations: 1: Center for Photonic Communication and Computing ECE Department Northwestern University 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston IL 60208-3118 USA 2: Time and Frequency Group Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science P.O. Box 102 Yuseong Daejeon 305-600 Korea
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