Characterization of Electro-Optical Devices with Low Jitter Single Photon Detectors -- Towards an Optical Sampling Oscilloscope Beyond 100 GHz

TL;DR

This paper presents an optical sampling scope using low-jitter single photon detectors to characterize optical transceivers, demonstrating potential extension beyond 100 GHz for high-speed optical measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical sampling method leveraging single photon counting with ultra-low jitter detectors for high-frequency optical device characterization.

Findings

Single photon detectors with 40 ps jitter enable precise optical sampling.

The method can be extended to frequencies beyond 100 GHz.

Effective characterization of optical transceivers demonstrated.

Abstract

We showcase an optical random sampling scope that exploits single photon counting and apply it to characterize optical transceivers. We study single photon detectors with a jitter down to 40 ps. The method can be extended beyond 100 GHz.