Abstract
We present the design and preliminary characterization of the first detection module based on Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) tailored for single-photon timing applications. The aim of this work is to demonstrate, thanks to the design of a suitable module, the possibility to easily exploit SiPM in many applications as an interesting detector featuring large active area, similarly to photomultipliers tubes, but keeping the advantages of solid state detectors (high quantum efficiency, low cost, compactness, robustness, low bias voltage, and insensitiveness to magnetic field). The module integrates a cooled SiPM with a total photosensitive area of 1 mm(2) together with the suitable avalanche signal read-out circuit, the signal conditioning, the biasing electronics, and a Peltier cooler driver for thermal stabilization. It is able to extract the single-photon timing information with resolution better than 100 ps full-width at half maximum. We verified the effective stabilization in response to external thermal perturbations, thus proving the complete insensitivity of the module to environment temperature variations, which represents a fundamental parameter to profitably use the instrument for real-field applications. We also characterized the single-photon timing resolution, the background noise due to both primary dark count generation and afterpulsing, the single-photon detection efficiency, and the instrument response function shape. The proposed module can become a reliable and cost-effective building block for time-correlated single-photon counting instruments in applications requiring high collection capability of isotropic light and detection efficiency (e.g., fluorescence decay measurements or time-domain diffuse optics systems).
Highlights
A wide number of Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting (TCSPC)[1] applications need largearea detectors, which are able to acquire very faint isotropically distributed light signals down to the single-photon level with high timing resolution
We present the design and preliminary characterization of the first detection module based on Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) tailored for single-photon timing applications
A possible solution is to increase the detector active area, but this will produce a sensible worsening in performances like Single-Photon TimeResolution (SPTR) and Dark Count Rate (DCR)
Summary
A wide number of Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting (TCSPC)[1] applications (e.g., fluorescence decay measurements and time-domain diffuse optics systems2–12) need largearea detectors, which are able to acquire very faint isotropically distributed light signals down to the single-photon level with high timing resolution (few hundreds picoseconds). SPADs do not need complex front-end circuitry;[15] they can be integrated into a single chip together with the detector, allowing arrangements that are truly miniaturized (in principle, down the dimension of the single chip), in particular, when the TCSPC circuitry is embedded.[16,17,18] In addition, they have been recently considered in diffuse optics because they allow the use of small source-detector separations, thanks to the possibility of exploiting an efficient mechanism of timegating to reject scarcely diffused photons that otherwise will saturate the detector.[19,20] the use of SPADs is demoted due to their small detection area (tens or hundreds μm diameter) which limits the signal harvesting, since signal from spread isotropic light emitters cannot be efficiently focused into a small spot without significant losses To overcome this limitation, a possible solution is to increase the detector active area, but this will produce a sensible worsening in performances like Single-Photon TimeResolution (SPTR) and Dark Count Rate (DCR). The stabilization of the detector temperature makes the performances to be constant over time even in the presence of external temperature perturbations
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