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Tenth International Conference on Information Optics and Photonics

Effect of time jitter of detectors on the non-local signal recovery in quantum microwave photonic systems

Yaqing Jin, Ruifang Dong, Xinghua Li, Tao Liu, Shougang Zhang, You Wang

Published Dec 5, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In Quantum Microwave Photonic (QMWP) systems, the most commonly used technique for signal recovery is Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting (TCSPC), which records the arrival time of the photon events and further recovers the Radio Frequency (RF) signal from the recorded time histogram. In this paper, we investigate the effect of time jitter on the non-local signal recovery in QMWP. By comparing the signal recovery results of two types of Single Photon Detectors (SPDs), including Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors (SNSPDs) and Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs). The results show that the time jitter of the SPD limits the highest frequency of the non-local signal recovery. Meanwhile, the achieved Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) has been observed to decrease with the RF frequency increase due to the photons decreasing in period. Furthermore, the results provide a guideline for the QMWP under different application occasions, which helps to choose suitable detectors.

DOI
10.1117/12.3048591

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In Quantum Microwave Photonic (QMWP) systems, the most commonly used technique for signal recovery is Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting (TCSPC), which records the arrival time of the photon events and further recovers the Radio Frequency (RF) signal from the recorded time histogram. In this paper, we investigate the effect of time jitter on the non-local signal recovery in QMWP. By comparing the signal recovery results of two types of Single Photon Detectors (SPDs), including Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors (SNSPDs) and Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs). The results show that the time jitter of the SPD limits the highest frequency of the non-local signal recovery. Meanwhile, the achieved Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) has been observed to decrease with the RF frequency increase due to the photons decreasing in period. Furthermore, the results provide a guideline for the QMWP under different application occasions, which helps to choose suitable detectors.
The quantum microwave photonics in radio-over-fiber (QMWP-RoF) systems has been recently demonstrated with a time-energy entangled biphoton source as the optical carrier combined with the single-photon detection technique. The results showed that the QMWP-RoF can realize the nonlocal recovery of the RF modulation from the unmodulated signal photons. Moreover, the RF modulation on the dispersed idler photons can be distilled. In this letter, we further investigate the SNRs of the recovered RF modulation as a function of the temporal selection window on the coincidence distribution of the biphotons. According to the investigation, the highest SNR of the nonlocally recovered RF modulation from the non-dispersed signal photons is achieved when the selection temporal width on the photon approaches the FWHM of the coincidence distribution, which may experience broadening due to the dispersion. On the other hand, the highest SNR of the distilled RF modulation from the dispersed idler photons is achieved at a fixed temporal width regardless of the dispersion effect. The results provide a guideline for optimizing the QMWP-RoF system under different dispersive conditions, which can better illustrate the resistance of the dispersion.
With the rapid development of microwave photonics technology, high-speed processing and ultra-weak signal detection capability have become the main bottlenecks in many applications. Thanks to the ultra-weak signal detection capability and the extremely low timing jitter properties of single-photon detectors, the combination of single-photon detection and classical microwave photonics technology may provide a solution to break the above bottlenecks. In this paper, we first report a novel concept of single-photon microwave photonics (SP-MWP), a SP-MWP signal processing system with phase shifting and frequency filtering functionalities is demonstrated based on a superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) and a successive time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) module. Experimental results show that an ultrahigh optical sensitivity down to -100 dBm has been achieved, and the signal processing bandwidth is only limited by the timing jitter of single-photon detectors. In the meantime, the proposed system demonstrates an ultrahigh anti-interference capability, only the signal which is phase locked by the trigger signal in TCSPC can be extracted from the detected signals combining with noise and strong interference. The proposed SP-MWP concept paves a way to a novel interdisciplinary field of microwave photonics and quantum mechanism, named by quantum microwave photonics.
By harnessing quantum superposition and entanglement, remarkable progress has sprouted over the past three decades from different areas of research in communication computation and simulation. To further improve the processing ability of microwave pho-tonics, here, we have demonstrated a quantum microwave photonic processing system using a low jitter superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) and a time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) module. This method uniquely combines extreme optical sensitivity, down to a single-photon level (below -100 dBm), and wide processing bandwidth, twice higher than the transmission bandwidth of the cable. Moreover, benefitted from the trigger, the system can selectively process the desired RF signal and attenuates the other in-tense noise and undesired RF components even the power is 15dB greater than the desired signal power. Using this method we show microwave phase shifting and frequency filtering for the desired RF signal on the single-photon level. Besides its applications in space and under-water communications and testing and qualification of pre-packaged photonic modulators and detectors. This RF signal processing capability at the single-photon level can lead to significant development in the high-speed quantum processing method.
Jitter is one of the key parameters for a superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD). Using an optimized time-correlated single photon counting system for jitter measurement, we extensively studied the dependence of system jitter on the bias current and working temperature. The signal-to-noise ratio of the single-photon-response pulse was proven to be an important factor in system jitter. The final system jitter was reduced to 18 ps by using a high-critical-current SNSPD, which showed an intrinsic SNSPD jitter of 15 ps. A laser ranging experiment using a 15-ps SNSPD achieved a record depth resolution of 3 mm at a wavelength of 1550 nm.
Quantum microwave photonics (QMWP) technology, which harnesses energy-time-entangled biphotons as optical carriers and employs time-correlated single-photon detection for high-speed rf-signal recovery, has demonstrated remarkable potential in achieving nonlocal rf-signal coding and efficient rf-signal recovery from significant dispersion interference. In this paper, we expound on the principle of maximizing the recovered rf signals in QMWP systems. Through theoretical analysis and experimental validation, we establish a precise relationship between the recovered rf signal's magnitude, the input rf signal's frequency, involved dispersions, and the width of the coincidence selection window. This enables us to determine the optimal width for the coincidence selection window and the corresponding magnitude of the maximized rf signal given the dispersion. These findings offer valuable guidance for improving QMWP systems, thus expanding their potential applications.
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are a leading detector type for time correlated single photon counting, especially in the near-infrared. When operated at high count rates, SNSPDs exhibit increased timing jitter caused by internal device properties and features of the RF amplification chain. Variations in RF pulse height and shape lead to variations in the latency of timing measurements. To compensate for this, we demonstrate a calibration method that correlates delays in detection events with the time elapsed between pulses. The increase in jitter at high rates can be largely canceled in software by applying corrections derived from the calibration process. We demonstrate our method with a single-pixel tungsten silicide SNSPD and show it decreases high count rate jitter. The technique is especially effective at removing a long tail that appears in the instrument response function at high count rates. At a count rate of 11.4 MCounts/s, we reduce the full width at 1% maximum level (FW1%M) by 45%. The method, therefore, enables certain quantum communication protocols that are rate-limited by the FW1%M metric to operate almost twice as fast.