title: Advantages of gated silicon single-photon detectors.
abstract: We present a gated silicon single-photon detector based on a commercially available avalanche photodiode. Our detector achieves a photon-detection efficiency of 45±5% at 808 nm with 2·10(-6) dark count per nanosecond at 30 V of excess bias and -30°C. We compare gated and free-running detectors and show that this mode of operation has significant advantages in two representative experimental scenarios: detecting a single photon either hidden in faint continuous light or after a strong pulse. We also explore, at different temperatures and incident light intensities, the "charge persistence" effect, whereby a detector clicks some time after having been illuminated.
authors.affiliation: Group of Applied Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva CH-1211, Switzerland. Tommaso.Lunghi@unige.ch
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lunghi
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pomarico
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barreiro
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stucki
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sanguinetti
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zbinden