Photon Counting Instrumentation and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Photon counting instrumentation plays a pivotal role in numerous technologies and systems, ranging from photon counting laser detection and ranging (LiDAR), quantum key distribution (QKD), positron emission tomography (PET), and fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to quantum optics experiments in addition to many other systems and applications.

However, the increasing use of single photon detector arrays in such systems is increasing demand for photon counting instruments capable of high-resolution and precise measurements across many timing channels. This is posing a considerable technical challenge in how to best implement time-to-digital converters (TDC) or time-to-amplitude converters (TACs) which are scalable, whilst offering the high linearity, precision, and low dead-times required by the detectors. In addition, the increased number of timing channels is also posing a considerable challenge in how to transfer timestamps between the instrument and the computer used for the storing/post processing of timestamps. On-chip processing of timestamps in hardware offers a potential solution to communication bandwidth limits and is likely to be key in enabling real-time systems.

This Special Issue aims to present the latest state-of-the-art research on photon counting instrumentation and photon counting applications. Researchers are invited to submit papers on the following topics:

• Time-to-digital converters (TDCs);
• Time-to-amplitude converters (TACs);
• Detector arrays with onboard timing electronics;
• Methods to improve TDC dead-time, linearity, and precision;
• Coincidence counting instruments;
• Time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) instruments;
• TDC timestamp post processing algorithms and use of graphical processing units (GPUs) to speed up processing;
• High throughput instrument to computer communication systems to enable high-rate timestamping;
• Applications of photon counting such as photon counting LiDAR, quantum optics, quantum key distribution, biophotonic applications, etc.;
• Other related photon counting systems, techniques or applications.

Dr. Richard Nock
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• photon counting
• time-to-digital converters
• time-to-amplitude converters
• time correlated single photon counting
• coincidence counting
• photon counting systems