We have developed a sensor system based on an optical photon-counting imager with high timing resolution, aiming for highly time-variable astronomical phenomena. The detector is a monolithic Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode array customized in a Multi-Pixel Photon Counter with a response time on the order of nanoseconds. This paper evaluates the basic performance of the sensor and confirms the gain linearity, uniformity, and low dark count. We demonstrate the system's ability to detect the period of a flashing LED, using a data acquisition system developed to obtain the light curve with a time bin of 100 microseconds. The Crab pulsar was observed using a 35-cm telescope without cooling, and the equipment detected optical pulses with a period consistent with the data from the radio ephemeris. Although improvements to the system will be necessary for more reliability, the system has been proven to be a promising device for exploring the time-domain optical astronomy.

中文翻译：

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具有单片盖革雪崩光电二极管阵列的光学光子计数成像仪的开发

我们开发了一种基于具有高时间分辨率的光学光子计数成像仪的传感器系统，旨在应对高度时变的天文现象。检测器是单片盖革模式雪崩光电二极管阵列，定制在多像素光子计数器中，响应时间为纳秒级。本文评估了传感器的基本性能，并确认了增益线性、均匀性和低暗计数。我们展示了系统检测 LED 闪烁周期的能力，使用开发的数据采集系统来获取时间段为 100 微秒的光曲线。蟹状脉冲星是在没有冷却的情况下使用 35 厘米望远镜观测到的，该设备检测到的光脉冲周期与射电星历数据一致。