We present a scalable design for a photon-counting ground receiver based on superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) and field programmable gate array (FPGA) real-time processing for applications to space-to-ground photon starved links, such as the Orion EM-2 Optical Communication Demonstration (O2O) [1], and future deep space or low transmitter power missions. The receiver is designed to receive a serially concatenated pulse position modulation (SCPPM) waveform [2], which follows the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Optical Communications Coding and Synchronization Red Book standard [3]. The receiver design uses multiple individually fiber coupled, 80% detection efficiency commercial SNSPDs in parallel to scale to a required data rate, and is capable of achieving data rates up to 528 Mbps. For efficient fiber coupling from the telescope to the array of parallel detectors that can be scaled both to telescope aperture size and the number of detectors, we use either a single mode fiber (SMF) photonic lantern or a few-mode fiber (FMF) photonic lantern [4]. In this paper we give an overview of the receiver system design, the characteristics of the photonic lanterns, the performance of the SNSPDs, and system level tests. We show that 40 Mbps can be received using a single SNSPD, and discuss aspects for scaling to higher data rates.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Real Time Photon-Counting Receiver for High Photon Efficiency Optical Communications


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2019-10-01


    Size :

    974071 byte




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Photon-counting for deep space optical communications

    Biswas, Abhijit / Srinivasan, Meera / Wollman, Emma et al. | SPIE | 2024


    A High Dynamic-Range Photon-Counting Receiver for Deep Space Optical Communication

    Srinivasan, Meera / Xie, Hua / Towfic, Zaid et al. | NTRS | 2021


    High-sensitivity photon-counting communications using Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes

    Robinson, B.S. / Caplan, D.O. / Stevens, M.L. et al. | IEEE | 2005


    Photon-Counting Optical Time-Domain Reflectometry Using a Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector

    Hu, J. / Zhao, Q. / Zhang, X. et al. | British Library Online Contents | 2012


    High-Sensitivity Photon-Counting Communications using Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiodes

    IEEE Lasers and Electro-optics Society | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005