高速深空通信是深空探测的关键技术之一,具备单光子灵敏度的激光通信系统将大大提高现有的深空通信速度.然而,单光子条件下的激光通信不仅需要考虑传输环境的影响,还需要考虑实际单光子探测器性能和光子数量子态的分布.本文在不考虑大气湍流影响的情况下,以光电探测模型为基础,引入超导纳米线单光子探测器(SNSPD)系统的探测效率和暗计数,建立了反应系统差错性能的数学模型,提出了系统误码率的计算公式.先对公式中的光强和激光脉冲重复频率对误码率的影响进行仿真,再通过实验结果验证仿真模型.结果表明,光强对误码率的影响最明显,随着光强从0.01光子/脉冲到1000光子/脉冲的增加,误码率从10~(-1)到10~(-7)量级明显下降;激光脉冲重复频率对误码率的影响受到不同光强的制约,但都随着脉冲重复频率的增加呈下降趋势.与此同时,当增加光强或者提高速度时,误码率高于仿真结果,约在10^-4量级,其原因可能是实际通信中调制光信号的消光比不足和光纤引入背景噪声提高了系统暗计数.以上模型和实验结果为进一步开展基于SNSPD的月球-地球、火星-地球等高速深空激光通信奠定了基础.
The high-speed deep space communication is one of the key technologies for deep space exploration. Laser communication system equipped with sensitivity of single photon will improve existing deep space communication speed.However, laser communication at single photon level needs to consider not only the effect of transmission environment,but also the performance of used single photon detector and the photon number distribution. As a new single photon detector, superconducting nanowire single photon detector(SNSPD) outperforms the traditional semiconducting SPDs at near infrared wavelengths, and has high detection efficiency, low dark count rate, low timing jitter, high counting rate, etc. The SNSPD can be used for detecting single photons efficiently, rapidly and accurately. In this paper, we introduce the system detection efficiency and dark count rate of SNSPD based on the photoelectric detecting model without considering the effect of atmospheric turbulence, establish the mathematical model of bit error, and put forward the formula of system bit error rate. What should be emphasized is that the bit error rate is an important parameter for measuring the performance of laser communication system. Error is partly from background thermal radiation and circuit electromagnetic interference; in addition, error appears when photons reach the surface of device without being absorbed to successfully produce resistance area or photons are absorbed but there occurs no response. As a result, the calculation of bit error rate includes the whole process of photoelectric conversion. In order to analyze how to affect the size of system bit error rate, first we simulate two factors of the formula, i.e., light intensity and laser pulse repetition frequency. The results show that the light intensity has the greatest influence on error bit rate. With the light intensity increasing from 0.01 to 1000 photon/pulse, the error bit rate significantly decreases from 10~(-1) to 10~(-7) level.The influence of laser pulse repeti