Quantum Simulation of SPAD in the Space Radiation Environment
Source: Originally published on arXiv quant-ph on August 4, 2026.
arXiv:2608.00040v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs) are critical components of emerging quantum communication networks that detect single photons. They are placed in satellites for long-distance communication and are susceptible to radiation-induced displacement damage in space. This degrades SPAD performance parameters, including reduced efficiency, increased thermal dark counts, damage to the Si crystal, and increased afterpulsing rate. This paper simulates SPAD in a space radiation environment by introducing a quantum simulation framework, modeling the SPAD detector as a three-level quantum system, ground state ($|g\rangle$), excited state ($|e\rangle$) and a trap state ($|t\rangle$). Furthermore, to model the photon as a quantum system, second quantiz...
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