Flicker noise of high-speed p-i-n photodiodes

E. Rubiola#%, E. Salik@%, N. Yu%, L. Maleki%

# FEMTO-ST Institute, Besanon, France % JPL/CALTECH, Pasadena, CA, USA @ OEwaves, Pasadena, CA, USA

Outline

introduction method background noise results

Work carried out at the JPL/CALTECH under NASA contract, with support from ARL and AOSP/DARPA

p-i-n InGaAs photodiode

II forbidden region iF vF iF I forwardbias region (not used)

light p layer i depletion region n substrate

bias dark

V b

P=0

vF

photovoltaic cell P=v iF F photoconduction P=P max vF =0 (virtual gnd)

light

bright light

III photoconductive region

ine short current Isc = Vb /R

loa

dl

IV photovoltaic region

photoconductive region => lowest C => high speed

Signal and noise

microwave-modulated IR microwave photocurrent with AM and PM noise
P (t) = P [1 + m cos 20 t]
iac (t) = P m [1 + (t)] cos [0 t + (t)]

Virtually no information on AM/PM icker is available

Motivations

frequency distribution systems deep space network, VLBI, inter-lab link laser metrology photonic oscillators (Leeson eect)

Experimental method (1)

the photodiode output is insucient to saturate a mixer a preliminary survey suggests that the photodiode phase ickering is lower than that of a microwave amplier 2/Hz at 1 Hz) (typical amplier icker -105 dBrad max speed of some 12-15 GHz (Discovery Semiconductors, Fermionics, Lasertron) a single-photodiode interferometric (bridge) scheme cant work because the equilibrium condition is dicult
hybrid laser
EOM !90 #

we choose some some photodiodes similar to one another,with a

0 0

RF IF

$
!90

LO

synthes.

carrier suppr. adj. (detection of ! or ")

Experimental method (2)

2

infrared 1.32 m YAG (13dBm) EOM laser

50% coupler

iso

P!
(!3dBm)

P r(t) hybrid % !90

0 0
(!26dBm) g=37dB

=6dB
RF IF LO

22dBm monitor output power meter power ampli

iso

photodiodes under test

v(t)
g=52dB

s(t)

FFT analyz.

&
!90

phase & aten.

(carrier suppression)

phase $
(detection of " or #)

100 MHz 9.9GHz synth.

Fig. 1.

PLL

microwave

near!dc

Scheme of the measurement system.

analyzer measures the output spectrum, S (f ) or S (f ). The gain, dened as kd = v/ or kd = v/, is

interferometric (bridge) scheme # low phase noise, limited by the noise gure of the amplier gP R0 kd = dissipative , (3) loss => the amplier does not icker # carrier rejection in where grejection of the source noise 0 = # is the amplier gain, P the microwave power, R 50 the characteristic resistance, and the mixer ssb loss. Rev. Sci. Instr. 73 (see below) the gain is 43 Under the conditions of our setup 6 p. 2445 (2002), and arXiv:physics/0503015
dBV[/rad], including the dc preamplier. The notation [/rad] means that /rad appears when appropriate. Calibration involves the assessment of kd and the adjustment of . The gain is measured through the carrier power at the diode output, obtained as the power at the mixer RF port

the noise of the amplier is not detected Electron. Lett. 39 19 p. 1389 (2003)

where q is the electron charge, is the detector responsivity, m the index of intensity modulation, and P the average optical power. This is proved by dividing the spectrum density Si = 2q = 2q P of the the output current i by the average 2 square microwave current i2 = 2 P 1 m2 . The background ac 2 amplitude and phase white noise take the same value because they result from additive random processes, and because the instrument gain kd is the same. The residual icker noise is to be determined experimentally. The differential delay of the two branches of the bridge is kept small enough (nanoseconds) so that a discriminator effect does not take place. With this conditions, the phase noise of the microwave source and of the electro-optic modulator (EOM)

Background noise (1)

well understood:

phase-to-voltage gain [V/rad] thermal noise

kd =

gP R0

dissip. loss

g P R0

S t

2F kT0 dissip. = + loss P 2F kT0 dissip. = + loss 2 P 2 m2 R

0

F kT0 q m P

shot noise

S s

4q = m2 P

power gain ( ampli) microw. pow. charact. resist. (50 ) ssb mixer loss noise gure ( ampli) thermal energy (41021 J) electron charge (1.61019 C) responsivity [A/W] modulation index optical power

experimentally determined or up-bounded:

contamination from AM noise (RIN) icker noise

Background noise (2)

low optical power => thermal noise >> shot noise 1. replace the detectors with microwave signals
hybrid
!90 #

0 0

synthes.

RF IF

$
!90
carrier suppr. adj.

LO

(detection of ! or ")

2. terminate the input of the delta amplier

iso laser synthes.
EOM
50% coupler

hybrid

!90 !

0 0

RF

iso
carrier suppr. adj.

IF LO

!90
(detection of " or #)

... and take the worst case

Technical diculties (1): crosstalk

high EOM driving power (22 dBm) low photodiode output power (-26 dBm) nite isolation (100-120 dB?) even small uctuations of the environment induce noise as a consequence of the uctuating crosstalk work nighttime, when nobody is around

W: waving a hand 0.2 m/s, 3 m far from the system B: background noise P: photodiode noise

Technical diculties (2): reections

back reections cause the spectrum to be polluted ares appear at random in some spectra, as shown unexplained physical mechanism

S: example of single spectrum, with optical connectors and no isolators B: background noise P: photodiode noise

Technical diculties (3): reections

back reections causes spectra to be polluted at random the average spectrum is smooth wrong slope it is dicult to identify and to discard polluted spectra

Figure e the corner. All the plots show the inst

A:average spectrum, with optical connectors and no isolators B: noise 3: background noiseof environment Examples P: photodiode

Technical diculties (4): bers

the path of the optical bers aects the internal stresses, and in turn the reections unpredictable eect on noise, which is not the photodiode noise trimming the system takespatience

amples of environment eects ll the plots show the instrument Background noise (spectrum B)

F: after bending a ber, 1/f noise can increase unpredictably noise and B: background noise mistakes around experimental P: photodiode

Example of photodiode noise

Figure 2: Example of measured spectra S (f ) and S (f ). modulator (EOM) is rejected. The amplitude noise of the source is rejected to the same degree of the carrier attenuation in , as results from the general

... after patient adjustement

Some results
all the pair of two dierentof the photodiodes. compared photodiodes are Table 1: Flicker noise
photodiode HSD30 DSC30-1K QDMH3 unit S (1 Hz) estimate uncertainty 122.7 119.8 114.3 dB/Hz
7.1 +3.4 3.1 +2.4 1.5 +1.4

S (1 Hz) estimate uncertainty 127.6 120.8 120.2 dBrad2 /Hz

8.6 +3.6 1.8 +1.7 1.7 +1.6

dB

dB

estimated uncertainty measured 0.5adB random,by restoring the photodetectors and breaking the in second test, aects the dierences path from the hybrid junctionby the three-corner and terminating the two (amplied to the amplier, method) free ends. The worst case is used as the background noise. The background 1 dB systematic, aects all values in the same way thereby obtained places an upper bound for the 1/f noise, yet hides the shot (non amplied by noise arises in the photodiodes, not in noise. This is correct because the shot the three-corner method)

Conclusions

the photodetectors we measured are similar in AM and PM 1/f noise 2]/Hz the 1/f noise is about -120 dB[rad other eects are easily mistaken for the photodetector 1/f noise environment and packaging deserve attention in order to take the full benet from the low noise of the junction

www.arxiv.org, read document arXiv:physics/0503022v1