PHOTON COUNTING MODULE BASED ON AVALANCHE PHOTODIODES

We report the development and characterization of a photon counting module based on an avalanche photodiode. The device uses an Excelitas C30902SH-DTC silicon avalanche photodiode as the detector, which has a built-in thermoelectric cooler. It includes a high speed active quenching circuit built using fast discrete integrated circuits. The device also includes a standard FC optical fiber connector, that allows to couple the detector to single or multi mode fibers. The maximum achievable count rate achievable is around 500k c/s, with a dark count rate of 1500 c/s and an afterpulsing probability of around 6%. These characteristics were obtained at a detection efficiency comparable to a commercial photon counting module.