FSRM - Cours: Photon Detection and Counting Techniques

Photon Detection and Counting Techniques

course photo

Objectifs du cours

Photon counting techniques have received a lot of attention in the last few years due to their amazing capabilities. Single photon detectors now play a key role in an increasing number of applications, like time-of-flight ranging, LIDAR, optical time domain reflectometry, quantum cryptography, semiconductor material study, photoluminescence, biology, DNA sequencing, tomography, spectroscopy, astronomy, lithography, gyroscopy, metrology and imaging. The course aims at introducing the participants to photon detection and counting methods and their broad range of applications. The key parameters, like the dark count rate, the quantum detection efficiency, the deadtime and the jitter, will be discussed. The course will give an overview of commercial detectors used to count photons. To illustrate the power of this technique, demonstrations will be performed on commercial units.

Public cible

The course is structured to appeal to a wide range of R&D staff, marketing and business development managers, Ph.D. students, as well as to engineers from institutes and companies active in applications for which photon counting techniques may enable new opportunities.

Contenu

Current and future applications of photon detection and counting techniques
Key advantages of photon counting techniques over traditional methods
Working principle of avalanche photodiodes (APDs)
Operation of APDs in Photon Counting mode: control circuits and critical parameters (quantum efficiency, speed, spatial uniformity, stability, spectral coverage, dark counts, dead time, photon-number resolving, pulse discrimination, timing jitter, array configurations, cost)
Metrology methods
Latest developments of single photon detectors (focus on existing limitations, deficiencies and opportunities for improvement)
Hands-on session with Silicon and InGaAs photon counters

Enseignant(s)

Dr Alexandre Pauchard is working with the Bobst Group, in a team providing customized optical systems and other solutions to the companies of the group.
Before that, he was CTO at Synova SA, a leading provider of innovative laser systems for a broad range of micromachining applications. Earlier he was VP of Engineering at id Quantique, a company developing network security and optical instrumentation products based on quantum optics, including quantum key cryptography systems, quantum random number generators and single-photon detector modules.
Previously he was Director of Engineering at Nova Crystals, a Silicon Valley company developing lasers and detectors for fiber-optic communications. He was responsible for the development of the company’s InGaAs-on-Silicon detector technology for aerospace, telecom and datacom applications. He has worked one year as a Visiting Scholar at UCSD in San Diego.
Prior to that, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Microsystems of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He was also an Invited Research Scientist at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
He holds a M.S. in Physics from ETH in Zurich, a Ph.D. in Microengineering from EPFL in Lausanne, and a certification in project management from PMI®. He has published over 100 journal and conference papers, and has been awarded 10 international patents.