Non-Markov property of afterpulsing effect in single-photon avalanche detector

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the afterpulsing effect in single-photon avalanche diodes is non-Markovian, exhibiting memory of past avalanches, which impacts the understanding and handling of afterpulsing in quantum optical applications.

Contribution

It reveals the non-Markovian nature of afterpulsing in SPADs through theoretical and experimental analysis, challenging previous assumptions of Markovian behavior.

Findings

Afterpulsing probability increases with the number of previous avalanches.

The non-Markovian property affects high-count-rate SPAD performance.

Results inform manufacturing and evaluation of SPADs for quantum applications.

Abstract

Single-photon avalanche photodiode(SPAD) has been widely used in researching of quantum optics. Afterpulsing effect, which is an intrinsic character of SPAD, affects the system performance in most of the experiments and needs to be carefully handled. For a long time, afterpulsing has been presumed to be determined by the pre-ignition avalanche. We studied the afterpulsing effect of a commercial InGaAs/InP SPAD (APD: Princeton Lightwave PGA-300) and demonstrated that its afterpulsing is non-Markov, which has memory effect of the avalanching history. Theoretical analysis and the experimental results clearly indicate that the embodiment of this memory effect is the afterpulsing probability, which increases as the number of ignition-avalanche pulses increase. The conclusion makes the principle of afterpulsing effect clearer and is instructive to the manufacturing processes and afterpulsing evaluation of high-count-rate SPADs. It can also be regarded as an fundamental premise to handle the afterpulsing signals in many applications, such as quantum communication and quantum random number generator.