Dark Count Research Articles

Silicon Photomultipliers Coupled to Scintillators With the Emission Maximum at 550 nm

A majority of the silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are sensitive to blue and near-ultraviolet (NUV) photons that are not optimized for scintillators with the emission maximum at wavelengths longer than 500 nm. The red–green–blue (RGB) SiPM is developed for the maximum photon detection efficiency (PDE) at 550 nm, which is a good match for some high-light-yield scintillators, such as CsI:Tl (CsI) and Gd <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1.5</sub> Y <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1.5</sub> Ga <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">12</sub> :Ce (GYGAG). Comparisons are made for the performance of these scintillators coupled to the RGB SiPM and a blue-sensitive SiPM. Because it takes tens of nanoseconds for the microcells to recharge after registering a photon hit, the linearity of these scintillation detectors was studied for high-energy gammas where numerous scintillation photons are generated. In addition, the energy resolution of the 662-keV gamma emitted by <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">137</sup> Cs was measured for temperatures between −20 °C and 50 °C. The nonlinearity was observed above 1 MeV for all measurements, and however, it can be corrected by energy calibration using a third-degree polynomial. For CsI, the energy resolution is better with the blue-sensitive SiPM because of the lower dark count rate (DCR). In contrast, GYGAG coupled to the RGB SiPM has a better energy resolution for temperatures below 30 °C because of the well-matched emission spectrum and PDE distribution. Nevertheless, the advantage disappears for temperatures above 30 °C due to the higher DCR. It would be useful to further develop the RGB SiPM with a lower DCR and higher operating temperatures.

Viewpoint: Compact cryogenics for superconducting photon detectors

Abstract Superconducting detectors capable of registering single light quanta - single photons - are highly sought after in a host of emerging 21st century technologies [1]. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs or SSPDs) [2] operating in the telecommunication wavelength range outperform conventional semiconductor detectors in the following metrics: dark count rate, system detection efficiency (SDE), photon counting rate and timing jitter [3, 4, 5, 6]. SNSPDs have been deployed in many important emerging photon-counting applications including single photon LiDAR [7, 8], quantum key distribution [9, 10], optical quantum computing [11], life sciences [12, 13], fibre sensing [14, 15], exoplanet spectroscopy [16] and free space optical communication [17].

A Multi-Time-Gated SPAD Array with Integrated Coarse TDCs

Time-gating of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) was commonly used as a method to reduce dark noise in biomedical imaging applications where photon events are correlated with a reference clock. Time-gating was also used to obtain timing information of photon events by shifting the gate windows applied to a SPAD array. However, in this approach, fine timing resolution comes at the cost of a lengthened measurement time due to the large number of counts required for each shift. As a solution, we present a multi-time-gated SPAD array that simultaneously applies shifted gate windows to an array of SPADs, which has the potential to reduce the measurement time compared to a single time gate window. Compared to similar works, this design has fully integrated the multi-gate generation using shared circuitry which also functions as a coarse time-to-digital converter. The proposed array, fabricated in the TSMC 65 nm standard CMOS process, achieved a median dark count rate (DCR) of 37 kHz, 4.37 ns gate widths, 550 ps timing resolution, and a peak photon detection probability (PDP) of 42.9% at 420 nm, all at a 0.8 V excess bias.

Multi-laboratory performance assessment of diffuse optics instruments: the BitMap exercise.

.SignificanceMulti-laboratory initiatives are essential in performance assessment and standardization—crucial for bringing biophotonics to mature clinical use—to establish protocols and develop reference tissue phantoms that all will allow universal instrument comparison.AimThe largest multi-laboratory comparison of performance assessment in near-infrared diffuse optics is presented, involving 28 instruments and 12 institutions on a total of eight experiments based on three consolidated protocols (BIP, MEDPHOT, and NEUROPT) as implemented on three kits of tissue phantoms. A total of 20 synthetic indicators were extracted from the dataset, some of them defined here anew.ApproachThe exercise stems from the Innovative Training Network BitMap funded by the European Commission and expanded to include other European laboratories. A large variety of diffuse optics instruments were considered, based on different approaches (time domain/frequency domain/continuous wave), at various stages of maturity and designed for different applications (e.g., oximetry, spectroscopy, and imaging).ResultsThis study highlights a substantial difference in hardware performances (e.g., nine decades in responsivity, four decades in dark count rate, and one decade in temporal resolution). Agreement in the estimates of homogeneous optical properties was within 12% of the median value for half of the systems, with a temporal stability of over 1 h, and day-to-day reproducibility of . Other tests encompassed linearity, crosstalk, uncertainty, and detection of optical inhomogeneities.ConclusionsThis extensive multi-laboratory exercise provides a detailed assessment of near-infrared Diffuse optical instruments and can be used for reference grading. The dataset—available soon in an open data repository—can be evaluated in multiple ways, for instance, to compare different analysis tools or study the impact of hardware implementations.

Simulation study on 3D convolutional neural networks for time-of-flight prediction in monolithic PET detectors using digitized waveforms

Objective. We investigate the use of 3D convolutional neural networks for gamma arrival time estimation in monolithic scintillation detectors. Approach. The required data is obtained by Monte Carlo simulation in GATE v8.2, based on a 50 × 50 × 16 mm3 monolithic LYSO crystal coupled to an 8 × 8 readout array of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). The electronic signals are simulated as a sum of bi-exponentional functions centered around the scintillation photon detection times. We include various effects of statistical fluctuations present in non-ideal SiPMs, such as dark counts and limited photon detection efficiency. The data was simulated for two distinct overvoltages of the SensL J-Series 60 035 SiPMs, in order to test the effects of different SiPM parameters. The neural network uses the array of detector waveforms, digitized at 10 GS s−1, to predict the time at which the gamma arrived at the crystal. Main results. Best results were achieved for an overvoltage of +6 V, at which point the SiPM reaches its optimal photon detection efficiency, resulting in a coincidence time resolution (CTR) of 141 ps full width at half maximum (FWHM). It is a 26% improvement compared to a simple averaging of the first few SiPM timestamps obtained by leading edge discrimination, which in comparison produced a CTR of 177 ps FWHM. In addition, better detector uniformity was achieved, although some degradation near the corners did remain. Significance. These improvements in time resolution can lead to higher signal-to-noise ratios in time-of-flight positron emission tomography, ultimately resulting in better diagnostic capabilities.

High Performance InGaAs/InP Single-Photon Avalanche Diode Using DBR-Metal Reflector and Backside Micro-Lens

InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diodes have proven to be the most practical solution for quantum key distribution and long-distance 3-D imaging. In this paper, to further improve the device performance, a new reflector involving the metal layer and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$S\mathrm{i}{O_2}$</tex-math></inline-formula> / <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{Ti}{O_2}$</tex-math></inline-formula> distributed Bragg reflector has been applied together with a micro-lens to increase the absorption efficiency by 58%. The normalized dark count rate is 127 Hz, 361 Hz, and 665 Hz for 10%, 20%, 30% photon detection efficiency, respectively, when it is operated under the gated mode with a pulse repetition rate of 50 MHz and pulse width of 1 ns at 233 K temperature. The normalized dark count rate is nearly an order of magnitude lower than commercial devices at 233 K, reflecting the high performance of the proposed near-infrared single-photon detectors.

New Constraints on Dark Photon Dark Matter with Superconducting Nanowire Detectors in an Optical Haloscope.

Uncovering the nature of dark matter is one of the most important goals of particle physics. Light bosonic particles, such as the dark photon, are well-motivated candidates: they are generally long-lived, weakly interacting, and naturally produced in the early universe. In this work, we report on Light A^{'} Multilayer Periodic Optical SNSPD Target, a proof-of-concept experiment searching for dark photon dark matter in the eV mass range, via coherent absorption in a multilayer dielectric haloscope. Using a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD), we achieve efficient photon detection with a dark count rate of ∼6×10^{-6} counts/s. We find no evidence for dark photon dark matter in the mass range of ∼0.7-0.8 eV with kinetic mixing ε≳10^{-12}, improving existing limits in ε by up to a factor of 2. With future improvements to SNSPDs, our architecture could probe significant new parameter space for dark photon and axion dark matter in the meV to 10eV mass range.

A new guard ring for ionizing radiation tolerance enhancement in single-photon avalanche diodes

A new guard ring is studied to improve radiation tolerance of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) designed in 180 nm high voltage Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The radiation tolerance enhancement is obtained due to the reduction of the electric field inside Shallow Trench Isolation (STI), which reduces radiation-induced positive oxide charge density inside the STI by almost one order of magnitude. TCAD simulations show that, after 1 Mrad (SiO2) of X-ray radiation with a cathode voltage of 24.4 V, the increase in dark count rate at room temperature compared to pre-irradiation is 1438 counts per second (cps) and 311 cps for the conventional structure and new structure respectively, which shows a 78.3 % decrease in DCR increment for the new structure as compared to the conventional one. Moreover, the fill factor and photon detection probability of the new structure decreases by 0.3 % and 6 % compared to the conventional structure, which is negligible.

A 500 × 500 Dual-Gate SPAD Imager With 100% Temporal Aperture and 1 ns Minimum Gate Length for FLIM and Phasor Imaging Applications

In this article, we report on SwissSPAD3 (SS3), a 500 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 500 pixel single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array, fabricated in 0.18- <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS technology. In this sensor, we introduce a novel dual-gate architecture with two contiguous temporal windows, or gates, guaranteed by the circuit architecture to be nonoverlapping and covering the totality of the sensor’s exposure period. The gates can be adjusted with a temporal resolution of 17.9 ps, and the minimum measured gate width is 0.99 ns; to our knowledge, the shortest reported to date among large-format SPAD imagers. In the dual-channel mode, the burst frame rate is 49.8 and 97.7 kframes/s in the single-channel mode. A 2690-MB/s PCI express (PCIe) interface has been added to the data acquisition framework, enabling continuous operation at approximately 44 and 88 kframes/s. Due to optimizations of the gate-signal tree, we achieved a significant reduction to gate skew and gate width variation, which is negligible with respect to the SPAD temporal jitter. These improvements, along with sub-10-cps dark count rate (DCR) per pixel and 50% maximum photon detection probability (PDP), result in a sensor particularly well suited for fast acquisition fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) experiments, for which we demonstrate reduced dispersion versus a single-gated sensor.

Simulation Software for Transition-Edge Sensor Performance Prediction

Transition-edge sensors (TES) are outstanding calorimeters based on the steep superconductive transition of a metallic film. Among other photon detectors, they are renowned for the fine energy resolution, the photon-number resolving (PNR) capability and an extremely low dark count rate. Due to the broad detection spectrum, from gamma-ray to visible and submillimetre wavelengths, TESs are highly sought-after in a great variety of fields, such as X-ray detection and quantum technologies. Each of these fields demands a step forward in TESs performance with regards to the recovery time and energy resolution. Here we present a program, primarily capable of predicting the performance of TESs. Using established theoretical and empirical methods we developed a software that allows the users to choose active area, thickness, and material composition of a TES and to calculate its performance. Furthermore, the software can simulate TES properties at different working points. The aim of the software is to minimize the production cost and speed up the overall process for the creation of new devices with improved performance.

Investigation of the Possibility of Using Microspectrometers Based on CMOS Photodiode Arrays in Small-Sized Devices for Optical Diagnostics.

The article considers the potential applicability of C12880MA and C11708MA Hamamatsu microspectrometers, which are characterized by an extremely compact design, occupying a small volume of several cubic centimeters, in portable spectrometric equipment with spatial resolution for monitoring the optical properties of condensed scattering media. The development of methods for determining the reduced scattering and absorption spectral coefficients of radiation from various scattering materials and products allows us to speak about the possibility of real-time control of the volume concentration of optically active components included in them, for example, fat and water in dairy products. For this, it is necessary to provide sufficiently accurate spectra of diffusely reflected broadband light radiation at different distances between the points of radiation entrance and registration. The aim of the manuscript is to assess the possibility of using the considered microspectrometers in compact devices for optical diagnostics and control of the optical properties of condensed scattering media. The features of the connection diagram of these microspectrometers and the necessary methods for correcting the initially obtained spectral dependencies of diffusive reflection, which will be of interest to developers of spectral diagnostic equipment, are considered in detail. The need to eliminate the influence of the inhomogeneity of dark counts of a CMOS photodiode array is shown. The hardware functions of the C12880MA and C11708MA Hamammatsu microspectrometers, as well as the AvaSpec 2048L fiber-optic spectrometer, were experimentally measured and compared. Methods for correcting the nonlinearity of their reading scales and light characteristics, as well as improving their equivalent spectral resolution using digital Wiener filtering, are described. It is shown that the equivalent spectral resolution of C12880MA and C11708MA microspectrometers can be improved by about 40% when recording smooth spectra, subject to the condition that the resulting side oscillations are small. It is pointed out that in order to reduce the level of side oscillations in the corrected spectra with improved resolution, it is necessary to ensure the smoothness of the original spectra and a good signal-to-noise ratio. A conclusion is made about the possibility of using the considered microspectrometers in portable spectrometric equipment with careful consideration of their characteristics, the features of their switching circuit, and the necessary software.

Towards a microwave single-photon counter for searching axions

The major task of detecting axions or axion-like particles has two challenges. On the one hand, the ultimate sensitivity is required, down to the energy of a single microwave photon of the yoctojoule range. On the other hand, since the detected events are supposed to be rare, the dark count rate of the detector must be extremely low. We show that this trade-off can be approached due to the peculiar switching dynamics of an underdamped Josephson junction in the phase diffusion regime. The detection of a few photons’ energy at 10 GHz with dark count time above 10 s and the efficiency close to unity was demonstrated. Further enhancements require a detailed investigation of the junction switching dynamics.

Quantifying signal quality in scanning transmission X-ray microscopy

While the general effects of experimental conditions such as photon flux and sample thickness on the quality of data acquired by scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) are widely known at a basic level, the specific details are rarely discussed. This leaves the community open to forming misconceptions that can lead to poor decisions in the design and execution of STXM measurements. A formal treatment of the uncertainty and distortions of transmission signals (due to dark counts, higher-order photons and poor spatial or spectral resolution) is presented here to provide a rational basis for the pursuit of maximizing data quality in STXM experiments. While we find an optimum sample optical density of 2.2 in ideal conditions, the distortions considered tend to have a stronger effect for thicker samples and so ∼1 optical density at the analytical energy is recommended, or perhaps even thinner if significant distortion effects are expected (e.g. lots of higher-order light is present in the instrument). (Note that X-ray absorption calculations based on simple elemental composition do not include near-edge resonances and so cannot accurately represent the spectral resonances typically employed for contrast in STXM.) Further, we present a method for objectively assessing the merits of higher-order suppression in terms of its impact on the quality of transmission measurements that should be useful for the design of synchrotron beamlines.

Front-End Design for SiPM-Based Monolithic Neutron Double Scatter Imagers.

Neutron double scatter imaging exploits the kinematics of neutron elastic scattering to enable emission imaging of neutron sources. Due to the relatively low coincidence detection efficiency of fast neutrons in organic scintillator arrays, imaging efficiency for double scatter cameras can also be low. One method to realize significant gains in neutron coincidence detection efficiency is to develop neutron double scatter detectors which employ monolithic blocks of organic scintillator, instrumented with photosensor arrays on multiple faces to enable 3D position and multi-interaction time pickoff. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have several advantageous characteristics for this approach, including high photon detection efficiency (PDE), good single photon time resolution (SPTR), high gain that translates to single photon counting capabilities, and ability to be tiled into large arrays with high packing fraction and photosensitive area fill factor. However, they also have a tradeoff in high uncorrelated and correlated noise rates (dark counts from thermionic emissions and optical photon crosstalk generated during avalanche) which may complicate event positioning algorithms. We have evaluated the noise characteristics and SPTR of Hamamatsu S13360-6075 SiPMs with low noise, fast electronic readout for integration into a monolithic neutron scatter camera prototype. The sensors and electronic readout were implemented in a small-scale prototype detector in order to estimate expected noise performance for a monolithic neutron scatter camera and perform proof-of-concept measurements for scintillation photon counting and three-dimensional event positioning.

Very large SiPM arrays with aggregated output

In this work we will document the design and the performances of a SiPM-based photo-detector with a surface area of 100 cm2 conceived to operate as a replacement for PMTs. The signals from 94 SiPMs are summed up to produce an aggregated output that exhibits in liquid nitrogen a dark count rate (DCR) lower than 100 cps over the entire surface, a signal to noise ratio better than 13, and a timing resolution better than 5.5 ns. The module feeds about 360 mW at 5 V with a dynamic range in excess of 500 photo-electrons on a 100 Ω differential line. The unit can also operate at room temperature, at the cost of an increase of DCR to 108 cps.

Characterising a Single-Photon Detector for ALPS II

Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) have found widespread application in fundamental studies due to their low background rate, high efficiency, and excellent energy resolution. This makes them suitable candidates for ALPS II, which investigates the existence of new particles (axions and axion-like-particles) which couple very weakly to photons. ALPS II anticipates an extremely low signal rate <10^{-5} cps (amounting to sim 1–2 photons a day). The detection of these low energy (sim 1 eV, 1064 nm) photons with a high energy resolution is necessary for ALPS II. We show that with our TES setup, we can analyze the TES pulses with different methods such as pulse fitting and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). These achieve (using the standard deviation) an energy resolution (Delta E/E) down to sim 8%. The pulse analysis, with a chosen fitting approach, assists also in achieving a very low dark count rate mathcal {O}left( 10^{-6} right) cps for 1064 nm photon signal searches in the TES.

Lateral separate absorption charge multiplication Ge-on-Si avalanche photodiode with low dark current in linear mode

To suppress the dark current and improve the detection sensitivity of the Germanium-on-silicon (Ge-on-Si) avalanche photodiode (APD), we report an integrated waveguide-based Ge-on-Si APD with a lateral separate absorption charge multiplication (SACM) structure, which works at low bias voltage. The breakdown voltage (Vbr) of the lateral SACM APD in linear mode is about 5.81 V, and the device demonstrates very low dark current of 0.157 nA and 40.7 nA at unity gain voltage (VGain=1=3.5 V) and 0.95Vbr (∼5.5 V), at room temperature. We also study the single photon detection performance of the device in Geiger mode. The practical dark count rate (DCR) at 300 K is with the same order of magnitude as the vertical SACM Ge-on-Si APD operating at 200 K. With the wavelength and average photon number of weak coherent pulse are 1550 nm and 0.1, respectively, the theoretical single photon detection efficiency (SPDE) of the device can achieve 0.4% at 300 K, which will reduce the dependence of the weak light detection system on the low-temperature working environment.

Noise optimization of single-photon avalanche diodes fabricated in 110 nm CMOS image sensor technology

This paper presents the effect of shallow trench isolation (STI) on the dark count rate (DCR) and after-pulsing probability (APP) of deep-junction-based single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). Two different SPADs were fabricated in 110 nm CMOS image sensor technology, one with STI and the other without STI between its anode and cathode. With TCAD simulations and measurements, we have clearly demonstrated that the SPAD without STI enables a dramatic decrease in DCR by more than three orders of magnitude without suffering from the lateral leakage current between the anode and cathode. By excluding the STI from the device, the proposed SPAD also achieves a negligible APP while the SPAD with STI shows a very high APP of 92%. Thanks to the low-noise performance, the proposed SPAD becomes operable with higher excess bias voltage so that it achieves good photon detection probability, 58.3% at 500 nm and 3% at 940 nm, and timing jitter, 71 ps full width at half maximum at 670 nm, when the reverse bias voltage is 17 V.

Radiation Hardness Study of Single-Photon Avalanche Diode for Space and High Energy Physics Applications.

The radiation hardness of 180 nm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) and 55 nm bipolar–CMOS–double-diffused MOS single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) is studied using 10 MeV and 100 MeV protons up to a displacement damage dose of 1 PeV/g. It is found that the dark count rate (DCR) levels are dependent on the number and the type of defects created. A new stepwise increase in the DCR is presented. Afterpulsing was found to be a significant contributor to the observed DCR increase. A new model for DCR increase prediction is proposed considering afterpulsing. Most of the samples under test retain reasonable DCR levels after irradiation, showing high tolerance to ionizing and displacement damage caused by protons. Following irradiation, self-healing was observed at room temperature. Furthermore, high-temperature annealing shows potential for accelerating recovery. Overall, the results show the suitability of SPADs as optical detectors for long-term space missions or as detectors for high-energy particles.

Reducing current crowding in meander superconducting strip single-photon detectors by thickening bends

To facilitate high optical coupling efficiency and absorptance, the active area of a superconducting nano/microstrip single-photon detector (SNSPD/SMSPD) is often designed as a meander configuration with a high filling factor (e.g. ⩾0.5). However, the switching current (I sw) of SNSPD/SMSPD, at which the detector switches into the normal state, is significantly suppressed by a geometry-induced ‘current crowding effect’, where there are sharp bends in the strip. Here, we propose and experimentally verify an alternative method to reduce current crowding both in SNSPD and SMSPD by directly increasing the thickness of the bends through the deposition and lift-off of a secondary superconducting film. We measure and compare the performance of SNSPDs and SMSPDs with different filling factors and bend configurations, with or without thickened bends. Improvements for detectors were observed in detection efficiency, intrinsic dark count rate, and time jitter, owing to the enhanced I sw. Our method provides a promising way of optimizing SNSPD/SMSPD detection performance.