Spaceborne,low-noise,single-photon detection for satellite-based quantum communications MENG YANG,1,2 FEIHU XU,1,2 JI-GANG REN,1,2 JUAN YIN,1,2 YANG LI,1,2 YUAN CAO,1,2 QI SHEN,1,2 HAI-LIN YONG,1,2 LIANG ZHANG,2,3 SHENG-KAI LIAO,1,2,4 JIAN-WEI PAN,1,2 AND CHENG-ZHI PENG1,2,5 1Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China 2Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai 201315, China 3Key Laboratory of Space Active Opto-Electronic Technology, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200083, China 4e-mail:
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[email protected] Abstract: Single-photon detectors (SPDs) play important roles in highly sensitive detection applications, such as fluorescence spectroscopy, remote sensing and ranging, deep space optical communications, elementary particle detection, and quantum communications. However, the adverse conditions in space, such as the increased radiation flux and thermal vacuum, severely limit their noise performances, reliability, and lifetime. Herein, we present the first example of spaceborne, low-noise, high reliability SPDs, based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) silicon avalanche photodiodes (APD). Based on the high noise-radiation sensitivity of silicon APD, we have developed special shielding structures, multistage cooling technologies, and configurable driver electronics that significantly improved the COTS APD reliability and mitigated the SPD noise-radiation sensitivity.