Designing an Inexpensive Single-Photon Detector/Emitter System for Quantum Key Distribution
By Mira Singh, Aditya Vasantharao, Sherry Yu
Current single-photon detectors are expensive, require temperature control, and must be used in dark rooms—they are susceptible to overload, which shorts the sensor if exposed to excess light, rendering it useless. This paper proposes a novel low-cost Geiger-mode Avalanche Photodiode (G-APD) which utilizes an inexpensive, reverse-biased LED as a photodiode and is compatible with SMA fiber-optic connectors so that it can be used in a Quantum Key Distribution system. Since the LED used has very low quantum efficiency, this G-APD also features machine learning-based dark count correction. We also propose the creation of a heralded single-photon source using GaN/AlN quantum dots, due to their high efficiency at room temperature. While these quantum dots are typically created using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), we propose the use of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) for quantum dot manufacturing.
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