On the measurement of intensity correlations from laboratory and astronomical sources with SPADs and SNSPDs

• Main Authors: Schroeder, Edward (Author), Mauskopf, Philip (Author), Pilyavsky, Genady (Author), Sinclair, Adrian (Author), Bryan, Sean (Author), Mani, Hamdi (Author), Morozov, Dmitry (Author), Smirnov, Konstantin (Author), Vakhtomin, Yuriy (Author), Smith, Nathan B. (Contributor), Berggren, Karl K (Contributor), Zhu, Di (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SPIE, 2017-07-18T14:36:01Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We describe the performance of detector modules containing silicon single photon avalanche photodiodes (SPADs) and superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) to be used for intensity interferometry. The SPADs are mounted in fiber-coupled and free-space coupled packages. The SNSPDs are mounted in a small liquid helium cryostat coupled to single mode fiber optic cables which pass through a hermetic feed-through. The detectors are read out with microwave amplifiers and FPGA-based coincidence electronics. We present progress on measurements of intensity correlations from incoherent sources including gas-discharge lamps and stars with these detectors. From the measured laboratory performance of the correlation system, we estimate the sensitivity to intensity correlations from stars using commercial telescopes and larger existing research telescopes. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.