Short-wave Infrared Single Photon Detection With Linear Mode Avalanche Photodiode

The advantage of single photon detectors is that they can be used for enhanced imaging, secure communication and powerful computing. These have the potential to transform how we live, work and interact with the world, for example, having unbreakable encrypted telecommunications by quantum key distribution, enabling LiDAR systems and environmental gas sensing by time-correlated single photon counting.

Detecting an individual quantum of light (a single photon) provides you with the ultimate sensitivity. The ideal detector needs to have an extremely high detection efficiency at all short-wave infrared (SWIR) wavelengths, very low noise, high speed, excellent timing resolution, user-friendly, low cost and be capable of use at room temperature.

Although there are several available SWIR detectors, a detector that fulfils all these requirements does not exist yet. Recently, using novel III-V materials and band structure engineered structures, we have seen a paradigm shift in the performance of SWIR detectors.

In this project, we aim to design and fabricate novel extremely low excess noise InP-based linear mode-avalanche photodiodes capable of detecting single photons, and evaluate them in several emerging applications. This new class of quantum detector will outperform the existing devices, and their demonstration would open new opportunities for emerging applications in areas such as national security and climate change challenges.