The properties of avalanche photodiodes and associated electronics required for photon counting in the Geiger and the sub-Geiger modes are reviewed. When the Geiger mode is used, there are significant improvements reported in overall photon detection efficiencies (approaching 70% at 633 nm), and a timing jitter (under 200 ps) is achieved with passive quenching at high overvoltages (20-30 V). The results obtained by using an active-mode fast quench circuit capable of switching overvoltages as high as 15 V (giving photon detection efficiencies in the 50% range) with a dead time of less than 50 ns are reported. Larger diodes (up to 1 mm in diameter) that are usable in the Geiger mode and that have quantum efficiencies over 80% in the 500-800-nm range are also reported.
We demonstrate that separate absorption and multiplication InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes can work biased above the breakdown voltage and detect the arrival time of single photons with 1-ns resolution and a noise-equivalent power of 1 x 10(-14) W/Hz((1/2)) at 150 K. We investigated the performance of various samples, cooling the detectors from different temperatures down to 50 K. These devices are suitable for the detection of short optical pulses in the near-infrared range up to a 1.55-microm wavelength, for the characterization of optical communication components, and for luminescence and radiative decay measurements.
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