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Optics Express

15 GHz single-photon detection at telecommunication wavelengths using sinusoidally gated InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode

Naoto Namekata, S. Adachi, Shuichiro Inoue

Published Apr 2, 2009• 137 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report a telecom-band single-photon detector for gigahertz clocked quantum key distribution systems. The single-photon detector is based on a sinusoidally gated InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode. The gate repetition frequency of the single-photon detector reached 1.5 GHz. A quantum efficiency of 10.8 % at 1550 nm was obtained with a dark count probability per gate of 6.3 x 10(-7) and an afterpulsing probability of 2.8 %. Moreover, the maximum detection rate of the detector is 20 MHz.

DOI
10.1364/oe.17.006275

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Aug 18, 2005•6 citations
We report a telecom-band single-photon detector for gigahertz clocked quantum key distribution systems. The single-photon detector is based on a sinusoidally gated InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode. The gate repetition frequency of the single-photon detector reached 1.5 GHz. A quantum efficiency of 10.8 % at 1550 nm was obtained with a dark count probability per gate of 6.3 x 10(-7) and an afterpulsing probability of 2.8 %. Moreover, the maximum detection rate of the detector is 20 MHz.
Using InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes as sensors and coaxial cables as reflection lines to reject spike signals, we have firstly employed the ``timing filtering'' gates to pick out avalanche signals and have realized the single photon detection at 1550 nm in the temperature range of thermoelectric cooling. A ratio of the dark count rate to the detection efficiency was obtained to be 9 × 10 −5 at 223 K. When the detector is applied to a practical quantum key distribution system, the transmission distance can reach 89.5 km and the repetition rate can reach 0.33 MHz.
A single-photon detector (SPD) at 1550 nm is essential for quantum key distribution (QKD) based on optical fiber links. A cooled InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode (APD) is a candidate for the SPD, because it has a high detection efficiency with a low dark count probability. However, the maximum detection speed was very slow (<10 MHz), which is due to the afterpulsing phenomenon. Recently we proposed the sinusoidal gating scheme and demonstrated the high-speed (500-800MHz) single-photon detection with a low afterpulsing probability. In the scheme, the overall afterpulsing probability is somewhat high when the gating frequency is lower than 100MHz. In this paper, we report on the afterpulsing-free (<1%) 80MHz single-photon detection using the sinusoidal gating. The 80MHz mode-locked titanium sapphire laser emits ~90 fs optical pulses at 810 nm. The wavelength of the optical pulses is converted into 1550 nm by the optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The 1550 nm optical pulses (~120 fs) are attenuated to the single-photon level and led to the APD (EPITAXX EPM239BA) cooled to -35 degrees Celsius. The cooled APD was operated with sinusoidal gating.
Because of low power consumption and small footprint, avalanche photodiodes (APD) have been commonly applied to photon detection. Recently, high speed quantum communication has been demonstrated for high bit-rate quantum key distribution. For the high speed quantum communication, photon detectors should operate at GHz-clock frequencies. We propose balanced detection circuits for GHz-clock operation of InGaAs-APD photon detectors. The balanced single photon detector operates with sinusoidal wave gating. The sinusoidal wave appearing in the output is removed by the subtraction from APD signal without sharp band-elimination filters. Omission of the sharp filters removes the constraint on the operating frequency of the single photon detector. We present two designs, one works with two identical APDs, the other with one APD and a low-pass filter. The sinusoidal gating enables to eliminate the gating noise even with the simple configuration of the latter design. We demonstrated the balanced single photon detector operating with 1.020GHz clock at 233 K, 193 K, and 186.5 K. The dark count probability was 4.0 x 10-4 counts/pulse with the quantum efficiency of 10% at 233K, and 1.6 x 10-4 counts/pulse at 186.5 K. These results were obtained with easily available APDs (NR8300FP-C.C, RENESASS) originally developed for optical time-domain reflectmeters.
Because of low power consumption and small footprint, avalanche photodiodes (APD) have been commonly applied to photon detection. Recently, high speed quantum communication has been demonstrated for high bit-rate quantum key distribution. For the high speed quantum communication, photon detectors should operate at GHz-clock frequencies. We propose balanced detection circuits for GHz-clock operation of InGaAs-APD photon detectors. The balanced single photon detector operates with sinusoidal wave gating. The sinusoidal wave appearing in the output is removed by the subtraction from APD signal without sharp band-elimination filters. Omission of the sharp filters removes the constraint on the operating frequency of the single photon detector. We present two designs, one works with two identical APDs, the other with one APD and a low-pass filter. The sinusoidal gating enables to eliminate the gating noise even with the simple configuration of the latter design. We demonstrated the balanced single photon detector operating with 1.020GHz clock at 233 K, 193 K, and 186.5 K. The dark count probability was 4.0 x 10-4 counts/pulse with the quantum efficiency of 10% at 233K, and 1.6 x 10-4 counts/pulse at 186.5 K. These results were obtained with easily available APDs (NR8300FP-C.C, RENESASS) originally developed for optical time-domain reflectmeters.
We present the design and construction of a high-speed telecom-band (1.5 μm) single-photon counting system based on an InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode (APD) operating in the gated Geiger mode. The detector can be gated at high speeds (we examine its performance up to 25 MHz) to maximize the counting rate in long-distance, telecom-band, fiber-optic quantum communication applications. Narrow gate pulses (250 ps full width at half maximum) are used to reduce the dark-count and the after-pulse probability. In order to count the avalanche events, we employ a high-speed comparator to sample the unfiltered and unamplified avalanche photocurrent. The APD and all the associated electronics are integrated onto a printed circuit board with a computer interface. In addition, we cool the APD to -27°C to reduce the dark-count probability.