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Pile-up correction in characterizing single-photon avalanche diodes of high dark count rate

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Abstract

Although as a single-photon detector, the single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) may be applied to multi-photon conditions. At a minimum, SPADs with a high dark count rate (DCR) demand a higher value of photon number per pulse to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. In this case, and without correction, severe pile-up distortion may induce a system error in the measurement of photon detection efficiency (PDE) and timing jitter. In this paper, we study the pile-up distortion in SPAD characterization by numerical simulation and experimentation, and introduce a pile-up correction method for the precise characterization of PDE and timing jitter in immature SPADs with an unintentionally high DCR. The results of this study are useful in the development of future SPADs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would especially like to thank Professor Jian-Wei Pan for his guidance and insightful comments. The authors would also like to thank Yuming He, Yu He, Xing Ding, and Jian Qin for offering the Ti:sapphire laser used in this study and for helping with the mode-locking. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants 61575185 and 61308014 and the National Basic Research Program of China Grant 2013CB922000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Xun Ding, Yueyang Fei, Tianzhe Zheng, Tao Su, Ge Jin, Xiao Jiang & Qiang Zhang

  2. CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Xun Ding, Yueyang Fei, Tianzhe Zheng, Tao Su, Ge Jin, Xiao Jiang & Qiang Zhang

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Kai Zang, Matthew Morea & James S. Harris

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  1. Xun Ding
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  2. Kai Zang
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  3. Yueyang Fei
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  4. Tianzhe Zheng
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  7. Ge Jin
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  8. James S. Harris
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  9. Xiao Jiang
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  10. Qiang Zhang
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Correspondence to Xiao Jiang.

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Ding, X., Zang, K., Fei, Y. et al. Pile-up correction in characterizing single-photon avalanche diodes of high dark count rate. Opt Quant Electron 50, 251 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-018-1517-x

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