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arXiv:1706.04927

Implementation of a Cost-Efficient Device for Wireless Photon Coincidence Detection

E. Ipus, Carlos A. Melo-Luna, Luis A Ocampo Giraldo, O. Vergara, John Henry Reina

Published Jun 15, 2017• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

State-of-the-art technology for pulse counter electronics offers an important range of commercial devices, but such systems are usually expensive due to the complex logic used for this task. The use of counting electronics in conjunction with photon counters can be used, for example, to perform experimental tests in Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Science. Here, we present the development and implementation of a low cost module for multiphoton coincidence statistics with detection windows of a few nanoseconds. The module consists of an array of logic gates, with a frequency operation of 250 MHz that corrects and amplifies the detectors signal. The device characterisation was done by means of detection of Transistor-Transistor Logic (TTL) signals retrieved from a signal generator, and implemented in an optical setup. The detected output signals (TTL pulses) were analysed and stored in a computer by means of a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Our module incorporates fundamental electronics that is currently used in the first experimental proof-of-principle tests in quantum information and molecular spectroscopy at CIBioFi.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1706.04927

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Coincidence counting is widely used in quantum optics.It could be used in measuring the pairs of polarization entangled photons and single photon interference.In quantum experiments,coincidence counting often needs more than 3 channels.In this case,it is necessary to use FPGA(Field-Programmable Gate Array) instead of discrete logic chips.FPGA also has the advantage of low cost and small size.Coincidence counter based on FPGA could support coincidence time window from 1 ns to several hundred ns.This helps to avoid noised caused by background light.This paper introduces the principle of multi-channel coincidence counter based on FPGA and gives its performance experimentally with two single photon counting modules.
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We present a multichannel coincidence-counting module for use in quantum optics experiments. The circuit takes up to four transistor-transistor logic pulse inputs and counts either twofold, threefold, or fourfold coincidences, within a user-selected coincidence-time window as short as 12 ns. The module can accurately count eight sets of multichannel coincidences, for input rates of up to 84 MHz. Due to their low cost and small size, multiple modules can easily be combined to count arbitrary M-order coincidences among N inputs.
In this paper we present the data acquisition (DAQ) system for a multichannel coincidence photon counter where this DAQ is optimized for a small coincidence window, high speed data retrieving without reduction and parallel data processing. For single photon detection we use Avalanche Photodiodes (APD) which are practical tools for detection in quantum optics and photonics quantum information experiments. However they introduce noise into the measurements originating from their dark count detection and after pulsing. One way to limit this contribution is to decrease the time window in which the coincidence detection measurement is performed. We have developed this DAQ based entirely on a standard Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) where the width of the coincidence time window is in the sub-nanosecond range. The same unit is also responsible for sending the result to the User Interface (UI). The communication between the UI and the FPGA platform is through a single link Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) by means of streaming DMA. Our DAQ is developed for Xilinx Spartan-6 devices but other devices are also supported. A Linux driver with all necessary functionality to communicate with the DAQ as well as the UI is also developed. The use of our unit can be extended for other detection counting physical systems.
We present results characterizing multichannel InGaAs single photon detectors utilizing gated passive quenching circuits (GPQC), self-differencing techniques, and field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based logic for both diode gating and coincidence counting. Utilizing FPGAs for the diode gating frontend and the logic counting backend has the advantage of low cost compared to custom built logic circuits and current off-the-shelf detector technology. Further, FPGA logic counters have been shown to work well in quantum key distribution (QKD) test beds. Our setup combines multiple independent detector channels in a reconfigurable manner via an FPGA backend and post processing in order to perform coincidence measurements between any two or more detector channels simultaneously. Using this method, states from a multi-photon polarization entangled source are detected and characterized via coincidence counting on the FPGA. Photons detection events are also processed by the quantum information toolkit for application testing (QITKAT).