Common-Mode Cancellation in Sinusoidal Gating With Balanced InGaAs/InP Single Photon Avalanche Diodes

We demonstrate a sinusoidal-gated InGaAs/InP single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) pair with high photon detection efficiency (PDE) and low dark count rate (DCR). The photodiode pair is biased in a balanced configuration with only one of the SPADs illuminated. The advantage of balanced detectors is cancellation of the common component of the output signal, which in this case arises from sinusoidal gating. In conventional sinusoidal gating, narrow-band RF filters are used to eliminate the gating signal while imparting minimal change to the avalanche pulses. A disadvantage of this approach is that the requisite filters fix the operating frequency, whereas the balanced SPAD receiver is frequency agile. At a laser repletion rate of 1 MHz and a temperature of 240 K, the DCR and PDE are 58 kHz and 43%, respectively. The afterpulse probability is lower than a single sinusoidal-gated SPAD. Jitter of 240 ps is achieved with one photon per pulse and an excess bias of 1.6%.