SC337 Single Photon Detection

Tuesday, May 18, 2010
9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Mark Itzler; Princeton Lightwave Inc., USA
Level: Beginner (no background or minimal training is necessary to understand course material)


Course Description

The ability to detect a single photon is the ultimate level of sensitivity in the measurement of optical radiation. There has been a recent surge of interest in single photon detectors in response to emerging applications for which single photon counting is an enabling capability. In many cases, these applications involve physical processes in which only a very small number of photons—often just one—are available for detection. In other instances, it is the quantum properties of a single photon that are exploited, and these applications are critically dependent on the means for sensing individual photons.

This course will provide an overview of single photon detector technologies along with a summary of relevant applications. In addition to surveying various single photon detector technologies such as photomultipliers and superconducting photon detectors, the course material will provide an in-depth focus on avalanche diodes since these detectors are often the most practical solution -- from perspectives including performance, ease-of-use, cost, and commercial availability -- for single photon detection. The presentation of design considerations and performance attributes should be useful to end users of this detector technology as well as to those who desire a qualitative understanding of the principles of single photon avalanche photodiode design. Ancillary operational considerations such as required support electronics will also be covered. The course will conclude with an assessment of future prospects for single photon detector technologies.


Benefits and Learning Objectives

This course should enable you to:

  • Identify a variety of applications that rely on single photon counting.
  • Compare different single photon detection technologies and choose the most appropriate detector for a given application.
  • Manage tradeoffs in single photon detector performance parameters to define optimized operating conditions.
  • Describe the fundamental design principles of single photon avalanche photodiodes.
  • Summarize different options for the support electronics—especially quenching circuitry—involved in the operation of single photon avalanche photodiodes.
  • Evaluate the state-of-the-art and future directions in single photon detection.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for engineers and scientists who wish to understand the basics of single photon detection. The presentation of design considerations and performance attributes should be useful to potential end users of single photon detector technologies as well as to those who desire a qualitative understanding of the principles of single photon avalanche photodiode design. Some familiarity with the basics of photodetectors will be helpful but is not essential.


Biography

Mark A. Itzler is chief technical officer at Princeton Lightwave Inc. (PLI). Prior to joining PLI in 2003, he was the CTO and vice president of engineering at the Epitaxx Division of JDS Uniphase. He has been active in the design and commercialization of avalanche photodiodes since 1996 and has focused on their application to single photon counting for the past five years. Itzler currently chairs the Conference on Advanced Photon Counting Techniques at the SPIE Defense, Security + Sensing Symposium, and he is a past Chair of the IEEE LEOS Technical Committee on Photodetectors and Imaging.