Ultralow photon flux OWC links using UV‐C single‐photon detection

Feng Liu; James Farmer; Grahame Faulkner; Jonathan J. D. McKendry; Enyuan Xie; Qianfang Zheng; Zhaoming Wang; Jianming Wang; Jordan Hill; Johannes Herrnsdorf; Martin D. Dawson; Dominic O'Brien

doi:10.1002/lpor.202401804

Ultralow photon flux OWC links using UV‐C single‐photon detection

Feng Liu^*, James Farmer, Grahame Faulkner, Jonathan J. D. McKendry, Enyuan Xie, Qianfang Zheng, Zhaoming Wang, Jianming Wang, Jordan Hill, Johannes Herrnsdorf, Martin D. Dawson, Dominic O'Brien^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Low photon flux optical wireless communication (OWC) links are difficult to operate under normal daylight conditions as the interference from daylight will overwhelm any signal. However, in the UV‐C region of the spectrum, light from the sun is highly attenuated, offering the possibility of link operation. In this paper, ultralow photon flux OWC links using a UV‐C micro‐LED and a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) based UV‐C single‐photon detector (SPD) are reported. A 1 megabaud per second (MB s−1) symbol rate 128‐pulse‐position modulation (128‐PPM) link is demonstrated with 7.7 transmitted photons per bit, corresponding to 0.97 detected photon per bit. A maximum bit rate of 120 Mbit s−1 is achieved in 8‐PPM links with a transmitted power of 1.7 nW. In addition, a 500 MHz single‐photon link is established with a bit error rate (BER) of 4.32 × 10 − 2 $4.32 \times {{10}^{ - 2}}$ and a measured bit rate of 2.12 Mbit s−1, showing the potential for a quantum key distribution (QKD) system operating at the UV‐C region.

Original language	English
Number of pages	11
Journal	Laser and Photonics Reviews
Early online date	24 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/lpor.202401804
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 24 Mar 2025

Funding

The authors thank the support from Andy Schreier (Fraunhofer Institutefor Telecommunications, Germany), Abderrahmen Trichili (University ofOxford, UK), Vincent Lee (University of Oxford, UK) and Hyunchae Chun(Incheon National University, South Korea). The research on micro-LEDwas supported by the TITAN Hub (EPSRC grant EP/Y037243/1).

Keywords

optical wireless communications
UV‐C
single‐photon detector
micro‐LED
silicon photomultiplier (SiPM)
ultralow photon flux

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10.1002/lpor.202401804Licence: CC BY 4.0

Laser Photonics Reviews - 2025 - Liu - Ultralow Photon Flux OWC Links Using UV‐C Single‐Photon DetectionFinal published version, 4.12 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Ultralow photon flux OWC links using UV‐C single‐photon detection",

abstract = "Low photon flux optical wireless communication (OWC) links are difficult to operate under normal daylight conditions as the interference from daylight will overwhelm any signal. However, in the UV‐C region of the spectrum, light from the sun is highly attenuated, offering the possibility of link operation. In this paper, ultralow photon flux OWC links using a UV‐C micro‐LED and a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) based UV‐C single‐photon detector (SPD) are reported. A 1 megabaud per second (MB s−1) symbol rate 128‐pulse‐position modulation (128‐PPM) link is demonstrated with 7.7 transmitted photons per bit, corresponding to 0.97 detected photon per bit. A maximum bit rate of 120 Mbit s−1 is achieved in 8‐PPM links with a transmitted power of 1.7 nW. In addition, a 500 MHz single‐photon link is established with a bit error rate (BER) of 4.32 × 10 − 2 $4.32 \times {{10}^{ - 2}}$ and a measured bit rate of 2.12 Mbit s−1, showing the potential for a quantum key distribution (QKD) system operating at the UV‐C region.",

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author = "Feng Liu and James Farmer and Grahame Faulkner and McKendry, {Jonathan J. D.} and Enyuan Xie and Qianfang Zheng and Zhaoming Wang and Jianming Wang and Jordan Hill and Johannes Herrnsdorf and Dawson, {Martin D.} and Dominic O'Brien",

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journal = "Laser and Photonics Reviews",

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AU - Farmer, James

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AU - Xie, Enyuan

AU - Zheng, Qianfang

AU - Wang, Zhaoming

AU - Wang, Jianming

AU - Hill, Jordan

AU - Herrnsdorf, Johannes

AU - Dawson, Martin D.

AU - O'Brien, Dominic

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Ultralow photon flux OWC links using UV‐C single‐photon detection

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Ultralow photon flux OWC links using UV‐C single‐photon detection

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Funding

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plaTform drIving The ultimAte coNnectivity (TITAN) (Future Communications Systems Hub)

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