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The breakdown flash of Silicon Avalance Photodiodes - backdoor for eavesdropper attacks?

Christian Kurtsiefer, Patrick Zarda, Sonja Mayer, Harald Weinfurter

quant-pharXiv:quant-ph/0104103

Abstract

Silicon avalanche photodiodes are the most sensitive photodetectors in the visible to near infrared region. However, when they are used for single photon detection in a Geiger mode, they are known to emit light on the controlled breakdown used to detect a photoelectron. This fluorescence light might have serious impacts on experimental applications like quantum cryptography or single-particle spectroscopy. We characterized the fluorescence behaviour of silicon avalanche photodiodes in the experimentally simple passive quenching configuration and discuss implications for their use in quantum cryptography systems.

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