Fully integrated free-running InGaAs/InP single-photon detector for accurate lidar applications

Abstract

Abstract:We present a fully integrated InGaAs/InP negative feedback avalanche diode (NFAD) based free-running single-photon detector (SPD) designed for accurate lidar applications. A freepiston Stirling cooler is used to cool down the NFAD with a large temperature range, and an active hold-off circuit implemented in a field programmable gate array is applied to further suppress the afterpulsing contribution. The key parameters of the free-running SPD including photon detection efficiency (PDE), dark count rate (DCR), afterpulse probability, and maximum count rate (MCR) are dedicatedly optimized for lidar application in practice. We then perform a field experiment using a Mie lidar system with 20 kHz pulse repetition frequency to compare the performance between the free-running InGaAs/InP SPD and a commercial superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD). Our detector exhibits good performance with 1.6 Mcps MCR (0.6 µs hold-off time), 10% PDE, 950 cps DCR, and 18% afterpulse probability over 50 µs period. Such performance is worse than the SNSPD with 60% PDE and 300 cps DCR. However, after performing a specific algorithm that we have developed for afterpulse and count rate corrections, the lidar system performance in terms of range-corrected signal (Pr 2 ) distribution using our SPD agrees very well with the result using the SNSPD, with only a relative error of ∼2%. Due to the advantages of low-cost and small size of InGaAs/InP NFADs, such detector provides a practical solution for accurate lidar applications.

Suppressing Dark Counts of Multimode-Fiber-Coupled Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector

“…Compared with the SMF bench, the MMF bench is more valuable because it has a lower insertion loss due to the large core diameter and the large NA. The SNR or NEP of our detector is much improved, in detail, the current SNR is about 50 times higher than semiconductor APDs [17]. In future, several modifications can still be implemented to further improve the performance of the MMF-coupled SNSPD.…”

“…Free-space applications in the photon-starved regime, such as deep-space laser communication [13], [14], light detection and ranging [15]- [17], demand of either free-space-coupled or multimodefiber (MMF)-coupled single-photon detectors with high SDE and low DCR sys to improve their overall system performance [18]. Compared with SMF, MMF possesses a large numerical aperture (NA) and core diameter that can provide distinct advantages, such as high light-gathering capacity, low coupling loss, and easy alignment in free space to fiber coupling.…”

Super-resolution single-photon imaging at 8.2 kilometers

“…The returned photons reflected by the perforated mirror and passing through two wavelength filters (including a 1500-nm long-pass filter and a 9-nm bandpass filter), are collected by a focal lens into a filter based on multimode fiber (1.3 nm bandpass). Finally, the photons were detected by an InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diode detector (SPAD) [32]. The sensitive area of SPAD is a circle with a diameter of 25µm.…”

An Overview of Lidar Imaging Systems for Autonomous Vehicles

“…Currently, Si-based detectors are used for the waveband between 0.3 µm and 1.1 µm, while InGaAs detectors are used above 1.1 µm, although they have acceptable sensitivities from 0.7 µm and beyond [118]. InP detectors and InGaAs/InP heterostructures have also been proposed as detectors in the mid-infrared [119], although their use in commercial lidar systems is rare due to their large cost if outside telecommunications standards and, eventually, the need for cooling them to reduce their noise figure.…”