Characterization of silicon avalanche photodiodes for photon correlation measurements 2: Active quenching

Abstract

We continue examination of the photon correlation properties of silicon avalanche photodiodes operated in photon-counting mode by extending their operation from that of passive quenching(1) to active quenching, yielding shorter dead time and higher frequency operation.

Quantum cryptography

“…Brown et al 1987). This mode enables higher count rates compared to passive quenching (up to tens of MHz), since the deadtime can be as short as some tens of ns.…”

“…Since the beginning of the 80's, a lot of work has been done to characterize Silicon APDs for single photon counting (Ingerson 1983, Brown 1986, Brown 1987, Brown 1989, Spinelli 1996, and the performance of SiAPDs has continuously been improved. Since the first test of Bell inequality using Si-APDs by Shih and Alley in 1988, they have completely replaced the photomultipliers used until then in the domain of fundamental quantum optics, known now as quantum communication.…”

Principles and features of single-photon avalanche diode arrays

“…SPAD detectors so far reported can be divided in two groups, according to the depletion layer of the p-n junction, which can be thin, typically 1 m [11,12], or thick, from 20 m to 150 m [7][8][9][13][14][15]. The main features of thin-junction SPADs are: breakdown voltage V B of 20-50 V; small active area, with diameter from 20 m to 100 m; fairly good quantum efficiency in the visible range, about 45% at 500 nm and declines to 32% at 630 nm and to 15% at 730 nm, and is still useful in the NIR, being about 10% at 830 nm and a few 0.1% at 1064 nm.…”

Optical emission Spectral analysis of pulse modulated plasma

“…At present, the main spectral analysis of the photoelectric conversion equipment is ICCD camera and photomultiplier tube, ICCD camera can shoot a spectrum at the same time, despite the exposure time is very short, due to the accumulation of back-end charge, cannot achieve fast continuous shooting. Photomultiplier tubes have high temporal resolution and can reach the ns level, but the photomultiplier can only measure the spectral intensity of a single wavelength at the same time [4]. For non-constant states of the plasma, the emission spectrum also changes with time, and some of them change rapidly, the current main photodetector ICCD camera and photoelectric multiplier tube (PMT) cannot meet the requirements, it is difficult to carry out effective measurement.…”