Wang Hui, Li Zhi-Jian, Hu Xue-Mei, Hao Hao, Guo Jia-Wei, Huang Yang-Hui, Liu Hao, Wan Chao, Tu Xue-Cou, Jia Xiao-Qing, Zhang La-Bao, Chen Jian, Kang Lin, Yue Tao, Zhao Qing-Yuan, Wu Pei-Heng
Opt Express. 2023 Jul 3;31(14):23579-23588. doi: 10.1364/OE.492616.
Scaling up superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) into a large array for imaging applications is the current pursuit. Although various readout architectures have been proposed, they cannot resolve multiple-photon detections (MPDs) currently, which limits the operation of the SNSPD arrays at high photon flux. In this study, we focused on the readout ambiguity of a superconducting nanowire single-photon imager applying time-of-flight multiplexing readout. The results showed that image distortion depended on both the incident photon flux and the imaging object. By extracting multiple-photon detections on idle pixels, which were virtual because of the incorrect mapping from the ambiguous readout, a correction method was proposed. An improvement factor of 1.3~9.3 at a photon flux of µ = 5 photon/pulse was obtained, which indicated that joint development of the pixel design and restoration algorithm could compensate for the readout ambiguity and increase the dynamic range.
扩大超导纳米线单光子探测器（SNSPD）规模以形成用于成像应用的大型阵列是当前的追求目标。尽管已经提出了各种读出架构，但它们目前无法分辨多光子探测（MPD），这限制了SNSPD阵列在高光子通量下的运行。在本研究中，我们关注了应用飞行时间复用读出的超导纳米线单光子成像仪的读出模糊性。结果表明，图像失真取决于入射光子通量和成像对象。通过在空闲像素上提取多光子探测，这些像素由于模糊读出的错误映射而实际上并不存在，从而提出了一种校正方法。在光子通量μ = 5光子/脉冲时获得了1.3至9.3的改进因子，这表明像素设计和恢复算法的联合开发可以补偿读出模糊性并增加动态范围。
