An integral gated mode single photon detector at telecom wavelengths.

We demonstrate an integral gated mode single photon detector at telecom wavelengths. The charge number of an avalanche pulse rather than the peak current is monitored for single photon detection. The transient spikes in conventional gated mode operation are cancelled completely by integrating, which enables one to effectively improve the performance of single photon detector with the same avalanche photodiode. This method achieved a detection efficiency of 29.9% at the dark count probability per gate equal to 5.57 × 10[?]6/gate (1.11 × 10[?]6 ns[?]1) at 1550 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]