Time-walk and jitter correction in SNSPDs at high count rates
Abstract
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are a leading detector type for time correlated single photon counting, especially in the near-infrared. When operated at high count rates, SNSPDs exhibit increased timing jitter caused by internal device properties and features of the RF amplification chain. Variations in RF pulse height and shape lead to variations in the latency of timing measurements. To compensate for this, we demonstrate a calibration method that correlates delays in detection events with the time elapsed between pulses. The increase in jitter at high rates can be largely canceled in software by applying corrections derived from the calibration process. We demonstrate our method with a single-pixel tungsten silicide SNSPD and show it decreases high count rate jitter. The technique is especially effective at removing a long tail that appears in the instrument response function at high count rates. At a count rate of 11.4 MCounts/s, we reduce the full width at 1% maximum level (FW1%M) by 45%. The method, therefore, enables certain quantum communication protocols that are rate-limited by the FW1%M metric to operate almost twice as fast.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 23, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.1063/5.0129147
Entities
People
- Andrew D Beyer
- Andrew Mueller
- Boris Korzh
- Emma Wollman
- Lautaro Narváez
- Maria Spiropulu
- Matthew D. Shaw
- Ryan Rogalin
Organizations
- Brinson Foundation
- California Institute of Technology
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration