Photon counting detector for high-repetition-rate optical time transfer providing extremely high data yield

Abstract

Abstract. A photon counting detector that has been optimized for optical time transfer experiments is presented. The newly developed detector's operational scheme enables us to achieve very high useful data yields exceeding 50% while still maintaining pure single photon operation and wide dynamical range. The photon counting detector was designed and approved for operation also in a space environment. Its construction is extremely rugged and compact. The long-term detection delay stability in the sense of time deviation is excellent-typically 200 fs for averaging times of hours. The change of the detection delay with temperature is typically below 260 fs∕K. Both the detector and its operational scheme might be employed in optical time transfer experiments on single photon signal level. Another attractive application is foreseen in future space missions, where a photon counting device providing subpicosecond timing stability and radiation tolerance is required. IntroductionThe two-way time transfer is an effective way to synchronize two independent time scales with high precision and accuracy independently on the variations of the interconnecting channel.1 In our previous work, we have demonstrated electronic circuits for two-way time transfer via a single coaxial cable with picosecond accuracy and precision.2 The two-way time transfer principle 2 implicates higher repetition rate of operation to effectively monitor the changes of the interconnecting channel. The experiment proved the capability of two-way time transfer technique to maintain picosecond stability over the periods of seconds to days. The systematic errors on the order of units of picoseconds have been achieved. 3 For distances longer than a few kilometers, the optical approach may be considered. The photon counting approach to the signal detection provides several additional key advantages: the reduction of most systematic errors found in commonly used multiphoton detection systems and the capability to operate with ultimately low signals. However, single photon counting detector operation at high repetition rate decreases its temporal resolution. The new operation scheme described in this paper allows us to convert the detector stability into effective high-repetitionrate single photon counting. The repetitive optical signals of an average intensity as low as 1 × 10 −4 photon/pulse may be detected and time tagged with subpicosecond precision and stability. We have designed and tested the optical analogy of the two-way time transfer using a common optical channel.Our group is also involved in several optical one-way time transfer experiments, 4,5 where requirements on the detector are different, due to the low repetition rate of the entire experiment and the assumption that optical path is almost unvarying.

Target Tracking and Ranging Based on Single Photon Detection

“…In this case, the SPD will allow the use of low-power laser sources to detect non-cooperative targets in conditions of a weak echo signal. Currently, most of the research mainly focuses on the rapid detection of weak signals, long-distance high-precision measurement, ranging performance, and imaging [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] based on single photon detection. However, there are few tracking researches based on single photon detection.…”