High-rate photon counting and picosecond timing with silicon-SPAD based compact detector modules

Giudice, Andrea; Ghioni, M.; Biasi, Roberto; Zappa, Franco; Cova, S.; Maccagnani, Piera; Gulinatti, Angelo

doi:10.1080/09500340600763698

Cited by 36 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…From Ref. [30], peak detection efficiency is taken as η S = 48%, FWHM timing accuracy as 50 ps and dark count rate as DC S 350 counts/s. These values significantly overpass the ones available for present experiment, η P M T = 10%, FWHM P M T = 1.22 ns and DC P M T = 50 counts/s, that are relative to the PMT technology, which was imposed by the current optical system coupled to the Coudé path.…”

Section: Arxiv:150905692v2 [Quant-ph] 20 Jan 2016mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental single-photon exchange along a space link of 7000 km

et al. 2016

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Extending the single photon transmission distance is a basic requirement for the implementation of quantum communication on a global scale. In this work we report the single photon exchange from a medium Earth orbit satellite (MEO) at more than 7000 km of slant distance to the ground station at the Matera Laser Ranging Observatory. The single photon transmitter was realized by exploiting the corner cube retro-reflectors mounted on the LAGEOS-2 satellite. Long duration of data collection is possible with such altitude, up to 43 minutes in a single passage. The mean number of photons per pulse (µsat) has been limited to 1 for 200 seconds, resulting in an average detection rate of 3.0 counts/s and a signal to noise ratio of 1.5. The feasibility of single photon exchange from MEO satellites paves the way to tests of Quantum Mechanics in moving frames and to global Quantum Information.Introduction -Quantum Communications (QC) are necessary for tests on the foundation of Quantum Physics, such as Bell's inequalities violation [1][2][3], entanglement swapping [4,5] and distribution [6], and quantum teleportation [7]. Moreover, the transmission of light quanta over long distances is crucial for the realization of several Quantum Information protocols, as quantum key distribution (QKD) [8][9][10], quantum authentication [11] and quantum digital signature [12].

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Section: Arxiv:150905692v2 [Quant-ph] 20 Jan 2016mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental single-photon exchange along a space link of 7000 km

et al. 2016

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“…for x ≤ x d . In (12) and (13), denote the factors in the brackets as a(x) and we can then write f XD (x) = λ(x)a(x), where a(x) can be interpreted as the attenuation effect on the arrival intensity due to dead time. It is worth mentioning that similar factorization of f XD was also used in Isbaner et al [35] for the derivation of their dead time correction algorithm.…”

Section: B Relationship Between Arrival and Detection Distributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dead Time Compensation for High-Flux Ranging

Rapp

Dawson

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Signal Process.

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Dead time effects have been considered a major limitation for fast data acquisition in various time-correlated single photon counting applications, since a commonly adopted approach for dead time mitigation is to operate in the low-flux regime where dead time effects can be ignored. Through the application of lidar ranging, this work explores the empirical distribution of detection times in the presence of dead time and demonstrates that an accurate statistical model can result in reduced ranging error with shorter data acquisition time when operating in the high-flux regime. Specifically, we show that the empirical distribution of detection times converges to the stationary distribution of a Markov chain. Depth estimation can then be performed by passing the empirical distribution through a filter matched to the stationary distribution. Moreover, based on the Markov chain model, we formulate the recovery of arrival distribution from detection distribution as a nonlinear inverse problem and solve it via provably convergent mathematical optimization. By comparing per-detection Fisher information for depth estimation from high-and low-flux detection time distributions, we provide an analytical basis for possible improvement of ranging performance resulting from the presence of dead time. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our formulation and algorithm via simulations of lidar ranging.Index Terms-Dead time, high-flux ranging, lidar, Markov chain, nonlinear inverse, single-photon detection.J. Rapp and Y. Ma contributed equally to this work.

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“…where σ is the Gaussian standard deviation, t 0 is the Gaussian peak position, t 1 the crossover between Gaussian and exponential trend, τ is the exponential decay constant, Θ(t) is the Heaviside function, A is the Gaussian peak value and B = Ae − (t 1 −t 0 ) 2 2σ 2 is the function value at the crossover point [47].…”

Section: A Resolving Photons Arrival Time With Sub-ns Accuracymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sub-ns timing accuracy for satellite quantum communications

et al. 2019

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Satellite quantum communications have rapidly evolved in the past few years, culminating in the proposal, development and deployment of satellite missions dedicated to Quantum Key Distribution and the realization of fundamental tests of quantum mechanics in space. However, in comparison with the more mature technology based on fiber optics, several challenges are still open, such as the capability of detecting with high temporal accuracy single photons coming from orbiting terminals. Satellite Laser Ranging, commonly used to estimate satellite distance, could also be exploited to overcome this challenge. For example, high repetition rates and low background noise can be obtained by determining the time-of-flight of faint laser pulses that are retro-reflected by geodynamics satellites and then detected on Earth at the single-photon level. Here we report on a experiment achieving a temporal accuracy of about 230 ps in the detection of an optical signal of few photons per pulse reflected by satellites in medium Earth orbit, at a distance exceeding 7500 km by using commercially available detectors. Lastly, the performance of the Matera Laser Ranging Observatory are evaluated in terms of detection rate and signal to noise ratio for satellite quantum communications.

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High-rate photon counting and picosecond timing with silicon-SPAD based compact detector modules

Cited by 36 publications

References 13 publications

Experimental single-photon exchange along a space link of 7000 km

Experimental single-photon exchange along a space link of 7000 km

Dead Time Compensation for High-Flux Ranging

Sub-ns timing accuracy for satellite quantum communications

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