Multipixel silicon avalanche photodiode with ultralow dark count rate at liquid nitrogen temperature

doi:10.1364/OE.17.016885

Multipixel silicon avalanche photodiode with ultralow dark count rate at liquid nitrogen temperature

M. Akiba, K. Tsujino, K. Sato, and M. Sasaki »View Author Affiliations

Optics Express, Vol. 17, Issue 19, pp. 16885-16897 (2009)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.17.016885

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Abstract

Multipixel silicon avalanche photodiodes (Si APDs) are novel photodetectors used as silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), or multipixel photon counter (MPPC), because they have fast response, photon-number resolution, and a high count rate; one drawback, however, is the high dark count rate. We developed a system for cooling an MPPC to liquid nitrogen temperature and thus reduce the dark count rate. Our system achieved dark count rates of <0.2 cps. Here we present the afterpulse probability, counting capability, timing jitter, and photon-number resolution of our system at 78.5 K and 295 K.

OCIS Codes
(040.0040) Detectors : Detectors
(040.1240) Detectors : Arrays
(040.5160) Detectors : Photodetectors
(040.5570) Detectors : Quantum detectors
(040.1345) Detectors : Avalanche photodiodes (APDs)

ToC Category:
Detectors

History
Original Manuscript: June 22, 2009
Revised Manuscript: August 13, 2009
Manuscript Accepted: August 31, 2009
Published: September 8, 2009

Citation
M. Akiba, K. Tsujino, K. Sato, and M. Sasaki, "Multipixel silicon avalanche photodiode with ultralow dark count rate at liquid nitrogen temperature," Opt. Express 17, 16885-16897 (2009)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-17-19-16885

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References

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K. Tsujino, M. Akiba, and M. Sasaki, “Experimental determination of the gain distribution of an avalanche phtodiode at low gain,” IEEE Electron Device Lett. 30(1), 24–26 (2009). [CrossRef]
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Achilles, D.
Akiba, M.
Akindinov, A.
Alpat, B.
Ambrosi, G.
Aurite, S.
Azzarello, P.
Balagura, V.
Banaszek, K.
Barral, J.
Bartlett, S. D.
Battiston, R.
Bondarenko, G.
Boscardin, M.
Breitenmoser, M.
Buono, S.
Buzhan, P.
Castelletto, S.
Charbon, E.
Chepel, V.
Collazuol, G.
Condorelli, G.
Corsi, F.
Dalla Betta, G. F.
Danilov, M.
Dautet, H.
Degiovanni, I. P.
Del Guerra, A.
Deschamps, P.
Desforges, I.
Diamanti, E.
Dinu, N.
Dion, B.
Dolgoshein, B.
Dynes, J. F.
Eraerds, P.
Fallica, G.
Fejer, M. M.
Filatov, L.
Fitch, M. J.
Fox, J. J.
Franson, J. D.
Garutti, E.
Gisin, N.
Golovin, V.
Grigoriev, E.
Groll, M.
Guschin, E.
Haino, S.
Hose, J.
Ilyin, A.
Ionica, M.
Jacobs, B. C.
Kantserov, V.
Kaplin, V.
Kapusta, M.
Karakash, A.
Kardynal, B. E.
Kayumov, F.
Klamra, W.
Klanner, R.
Klemin, S.
Knill, E.
Korbel, V.
Laflamme, R.
Lafyatis, G. P.
Langrock, C.
Legré, M.
Levi, G.
Llosa, G.
Lombardo, S.
Lopes, M. I.
Lorenz, E.
Ludziejewski, T.
MacGregor, A. D.
MacSween, D.
Marcatili, S.
Marques, R. F.
Marzocca, C.
Mazzillo, M.
McIntyre, R. J.
Metscher, B. D.
Meyer, H.
Migdall, A.
Milburn, G. J.
Mirzoyan, R.
Mizuk, R.
Morgunov, V.
Moszynski, M.
Neves, F.
Niclass, C.
Novikov, E.
Otte, A. N.
Owens, P. C. M.
Pakhlov, P.
Papi, A.
Petasecca, M.
Piemonte, C.
Pignatel, G.
Pignatel, G. U.
Pittman, T. B.
Pokachalov, V.
Policarpo, A. J. P. L.
Popova, E.
Pozza, A.
Quadrani, L.
Rarity, J. G.
Ridley, K. D.
Rimini, E.
Robinson, D. L.
Rocca, R.
Rochas, A.
Rusinov, V.
Sanders, B. C.
Sanfilippo, D.
Sasaki, M.
Saveliev, V.
Sbarra, C.
Schettini, V.
Sciacca, E.
Sefkow, F.
Sharpe, A. W.
Shields, A. J.
Silberhorn, C.
Sliwa, C.
Smirnov, K.
Smirnov, S.
Solovov, V. N.
Szawlowski, M.
Takeoka, M.
Takesue, H.
Tapster, P. R.
Tarkovsky, E.
Teshima, M.
Tikhomirov, I.
Trottier, C.
Tsujino, K.
Waks, E.
Wall, T. E.
Walmsley, I. A.
Webb, P. P.
Wolski, D.
Woodard, N.
Yamamoto, Y.
Yuan, Z. L.
Zbinden, H.
Zorzi, N.

Appl. Opt.

Appl. Phys. Lett.

D. L. Robinson and B. D. Metscher, “Photon detection with cooled avalanche photodiodes,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 51(19), 1493–1494 (1987). [CrossRef]
J. F. Dynes, Z. L. Yuan, A. W. Sharpe, and A. J. Shields, “A high speed, postprocessing free, quantum random number generator,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93(3), 031109 (2008). [CrossRef]
Z. L. Yuan, B. E. Kardynal, A. W. Sharpe, and A. J. Shields, “High speed single photon detection in the near infrared,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 91(4), 041114 (2007). [CrossRef]

IEEE Electron Device Lett.

K. Tsujino, M. Akiba, and M. Sasaki, “Experimental determination of the gain distribution of an avalanche phtodiode at low gain,” IEEE Electron Device Lett. 30(1), 24–26 (2009). [CrossRef]
E. Sciacca, G. Condorelli, S. Aurite, S. Lombardo, M. Mazzillo, D. Sanfilippo, G. Fallica, and E. Rimini, “Crosstalk Characterization in Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiode Arrays,” IEEE Electron Device Lett. 29(3), 218–220 (2008). [CrossRef]

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

M. Petasecca, B. Alpat, G. Ambrosi, P. Azzarello, R. Battiston, M. Ionica, A. Papi, G. U. Pignatel, and S. Haino, “Thermal and electrical characterization of silicon photomultiplier,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 55(3), 1686–1690 (2008). [CrossRef]
M. Moszynski, T. Ludziejewski, D. Wolski, W. Klamra, M. Szawlowski, and M. Kapusta, “Subnanosecond timing with large area avalanche photodiodes and LSO scintillator,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 43(3), 1298–1302 (1996). [CrossRef]

J. Mod. Opt.

V. N. Solovov, F. Neves, V. Chepel, M. I. Lopes, R. F. Marques, and A. J. P. L. Policarpo, “Low temperature performance of a large area avalanche photodiode,” J. Mod. Opt. 51, 1351–1357 (2004).
S. Castelletto, I. P. Degiovanni, V. Schettini, and A. Migdall, “Reduced deadtime and higher rate photon-counting detection using multiplexed detector array,” J. Mod. Opt. 54(2), 337–352 (2007). [CrossRef]

Nat. Photonics

B. E. Kardynał, Z. L. Yuan, and A. J. Shields, “An avalanche-photodiode-based photon-number-resolving detector,” Nat. Photonics 2(7), 425–428 (2008). [CrossRef]

Nature

E. Knill, R. Laflamme, and G. J. Milburn, “A scheme for efficient quantum computation with linear optics,” Nature 409(6816), 46–52 (2001). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Nucl. Instrum. Methods

G. Bondarenko, P. Buzhan, B. Dolgoshein, V. Golovin, E. Guschin, A. Ilyin, V. Kaplin, A. Karakash, R. Klanner, V. Pokachalov, E. Popova, and K. Smirnov, “Limited Geiger-mode microcell silicon photodiode: new results,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods 442(1-3), 187–192 (2000). [CrossRef]
P. Buzhan, B. Dolgoshein, L. Filatov, A. Ilyin, V. Kantserov, V. Kaplin, A. Karakash, F. Kayumov, S. Klemin, E. Popova, and S. Smirnov, “Silicon photomultiplier and its possible application,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods 504(1-3), 48–52 (2003). [CrossRef]
V. Golovin and V. Saveliev, “Novel type of avalanche photodetector with Geiger mode operation,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods 518(1-2), 560–564 (2004). [CrossRef]
B. Dolgoshein, V. Balagura, P. Buzhan, M. Danilov, L. Filatov, E. Garutti, M. Groll, A. Ilyin, V. Kantserov, V. Kaplin, A. Karakash, F. Kayumov, S. Klemin, V. Korbel, H. Meyer, R. Mizuk, V. Morgunov, E. Novikov, P. Pakhlov, E. Popova, V. Rusinov, F. Sefkow, E. Tarkovsky, and I. Tikhomirov, “Calice/SiPM Collaboration, “Status report on silicon photomultiplier development and its applications,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods 563(2), 368–376 (2006). [CrossRef]
A. N. Otte, J. Barral, B. Dolgoshein, J. Hose, S. Klemin, E. Lorenz, R. Mirzoyan, E. Popova, and M. Teshima, “A test of silicon photomultipliers as readout for PET,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods 545(3), 705–715 (2005). [CrossRef]
N. Dinu, R. Battiston, M. Boscardin, G. Collazuol, F. Corsi, G. F. Dalla Betta, A. Del Guerra, G. Llosa, M. Ionica, G. Levi, S. Marcatili, C. Marzocca, C. Piemonte, G. Pignatel, A. Pozza, L. Quadrani, C. Sbarra, and N. Zorzi, “Development of the first prototypes of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) at ITC-irst,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods 572(1), 422–426 (2007). [CrossRef]
E. Grigoriev, A. Akindinov, M. Breitenmoser, S. Buono, E. Charbon, C. Niclass, I. Desforges, and R. Rocca, “Silicon photomultipliers and their bio-medical applications,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods 571(1-2), 130–133 (2007). [CrossRef]

Opt. Express

Opt. Lett.

Phys. Rev. A

M. J. Fitch, B. C. Jacobs, T. B. Pittman, and J. D. Franson, “Photon-number resolution using time-multiplexed single-photon detectors,” Phys. Rev. A 68(4), 043814 (2003). [CrossRef]
M. Takeoka and M. Sasaki, “Discrimination of the binary coherent signal: Gaussian-operation limit and simple non-Gaussian near-optimal receivers,” Phys. Rev. A 78(2), 022320 (2008). [CrossRef]

Phys. Rev. Lett.

E. Waks, E. Diamanti, B. C. Sanders, S. D. Bartlett, and Y. Yamamoto, “Direct observation of nonclassical photon statistics in parametric down-conversion,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 92(11), 113602 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Rev. Sci. Instrum.

J. J. Fox, N. Woodard, and G. P. Lafyatis, “Characterization of cooled large-area silicon avalanche photodiodes,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70(4), 1951–1956 (1999). [CrossRef]

Other

T. Moroder, M. Curty, and N. Lutkenhaus, “Detector decoy quantum key distribution,” arXiv:0811.0027v1 [quant-ph] (2008).

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