NANOSECOND SINGLE-PHOTON TIMING WITH INGAAS INP PHOTODIODES/

We demonstrate that separate absorption and multiplication InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes can work biased above the breakdown voltage and detect the arrival tame of single photons with 1-ns resolution and a n oise-equivalent power of 1 x 10(-14) W/Hz1/2 at 150 K. We investigated the performance of various samples, cooling the detectors from differ ent temperatures down to 50 K. These devices are suitable for the dete ction of short optical pulses in the near-infrared range up to a 1.55- mum wavelength, for the characterization of optical communication comp onents, and for luminescence and radiative