InGaAs/InP-based semiconductor avalanche photodiode are usually employed for single-photon counting at telecom wavelength. However they are affected by afterpulsing which limits the diode performance. Recently, Princeton Lightwave has commercialised a diode integrating monolithically a feedback resistor. This solution effectively quenches the avalanche and drastically reduces afterpulsing. Here, we report the development and characterization of a detector module based on this diode, implementing an active hold-off circuit which further reduces the afterpulsing and notably improves the detector performances. We demonstrate free-running operation with 600 Hz dark count rate at 10% detection efficiency. We also improved the standard double-window technique for the afterpulsing characterization. Our algorithm implemented by a FPGA allows to put the APD in a well-defined initial condition and to measure the impact of the higher order afterpulses.
@article{arxiv.1204.4594,
title = {Free Running Single Photon Detection based on a negative feedback InGaAs APD},
author = {Tommaso Lunghi and Claudio Barreiro and Olivier Guinnard and Raphael Houlmann and Xudong Jiang and Mark A. Itzler and Hugo Zbinden},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.4594},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
18 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to Journal of Modern Optics