Real-time characterization of gated-mode single-photon detectors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a real-time method for characterizing key parameters of single-photon detectors during operation, using statistical analysis of detection intervals, demonstrated on commercial InGaAs APDs.

Contribution

A novel real-time characterization technique for single-photon detectors that requires minimal instrumentation and can be applied during actual device operation.

Findings

Effective parameter extraction demonstrated on commercial detectors

Method works with different statistical data lengths

Suitable for real-time monitoring in practical applications

Abstract

We propose a characterization method for the overall detection efficiency, afterpulse and dark count probabilities of single-photon counting modules in real-time with simple instrumentation. This method can be applied when the module is running in its intended application, and is based on monitoring the statistics of the times between consecutive detections. A mathematical model is derived and fit to the data statistical distribution to simultaneously extract the characterization parameters. The feasibility of our scheme is demonstrated by performing measurements on three commercial devices based on cooled InGaAs APD operating in gated mode. Different statistical ensemble lengths were analyzed and results assess the scheme for real-time application.