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Anales/Anales AFA

DEVELOPMENT OF AN FPGA-BASED COINCIDENCE COUNTING SYSTEM FOR MULTIPLE SIGNALS

Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas (CIOp) – Universidad Nacional de La Plata – CIC – CONICET – Argentina, Matías Rubén Bolaños, A. Boette, Instituto de Física de La Plata (IFLP), Universidad Nacional de La Plata – CONICET – Argentina, Fabián A. Videla, Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas (CIOp) – Universidad Nacional de La Plata – CIC – CONICET – Argentina Departamento Ciencias Básicas, Facultad de Ingeniería UNLP Avenida 1 y 47, La Plata, Argentina, L. Rebón, Instituto de Física de La Plata (IFLP), Universidad Nacional de La Plata – CONICET – Argentina

Published Mar 28, 2023• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The detection of temporally coincident signals plays an important role in different technological applications for metrology and communication, and particularly, in the area of quantum optics. In this sense, the simultaneous detection of two or more photons allows one to take advantage of the non-classical features of light that manifest themselves in certain types of correlations that cannot be described classically. We present here the development of programmable modules, by using FPGA technology, which are part of the coincident pulse detection and counting system. Our implementation, in a development board from Xilinx, allows to determine when two or more pulses overlap within a temporal window, with a configurable width in the range of 1 and 255 ns to compensate for possible path differences. We obtained the photodetection statistics result of the single and coincident pulse measurements and compared them with that predicted by a theoretical analysis. In addition, we have emulated the signals corresponding to different photon sources through a beam splitter, and obtained the photodetection statistics from which we determine, for each case, the second order correlation function g(2)(τ).

DOI
10.31527/analesafa.2023.34.1.27

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The detection of temporally coincident signals plays an important role in different technological applications for metrology and communication, and particularly, in the area of quantum optics. In this sense, the simultaneous detection of two or more photons allows one to take advantage of the non-classical features of light that manifest themselves in certain types of correlations that cannot be described classically. We present here the development of programmable modules, by using FPGA technology, which are part of the coincident pulse detection and counting system. Our implementation, in a development board from Xilinx, allows to determine when two or more pulses overlap within a temporal window, with a configurable width in the range of 1 and 255 ns to compensate for possible path differences. We obtained the photodetection statistics result of the single and coincident pulse measurements and compared them with that predicted by a theoretical analysis. In addition, we have emulated the signals corresponding to different photon sources through a beam splitter, and obtained the photodetection statistics from which we determine, for each case, the second order correlation function g(2)(τ).
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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.
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.
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Control of quantum signals is very robust design technique and very important in quantum signal processing (QSP). It is not easy in experimentation platforms. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is using to control very various range of devices in quantum fields through PCs. FPGA needs to run modules of components to communicate and interfacing with the PC, through decode perform commands to direct control of digital hardware’s. If programmer has a real-time control of the FPGA via USB, it can be possible to evaluate design parameters changes in real-time, without reprogramming the FPGA. That makes the proposed design platforms easier for researchers. This paper discusses experiment of control quantum signals by FPGA to control coincidence logic for Quantum Entangled Pair (QEP), that able to measure polarization correlations relationships between photons of the QEP. This FPGA helps to determine detection events at different detectors which can be attributed to a single photon pair. Also to determine the correlation time between two different beams frequencies is extremely accurate according to the delay between the beams, which is very short.
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