Afterpulsing studies of low-noise InGaAs/InP single-photon negative-feedback avalanche diodes

Abstract

We characterise the temporal evolution of the afterpulse probability in a free-running negative-feedback avalanche diode (NFAD) over an extended range, from ∼300 ns to ∼1 ms. This is possible thanks to an extremely low dark count rate on the order of 1 cps at 10% efficiency, achieved by operating the NFAD at temperatures as low as 143 K. Experimental results in a large range of operating temperatures (223–143 K) are compared with a legacy afterpulsing model based on multiple trap families at discrete energy levels, which is found to be lacking in physical completeness. Subsequently, we expand on a recent proposal which considers a continuous spectrum of traps by introducing well-defined edges to the spectrum, which are experimentally observed.