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Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors with High System Detection Efficiency at Telecom Wavelengths

Francesco Marsili, Varun Boehm Verma, Jeff A. Stern, Sean David Harrington, Adriana E. Lita, Thomas Gerrits, Igor Vayshenker, Burm Baek, Matthew D. Shaw, Aaron Miller, Richard P. Mirin, Sae Woo Nam

Published Jan 1, 2013• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We report on a fiber-coupled eight-channel single-photon-detection system employing superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) based on amorphous tungsten silicide (WSi) with system detection efficiency ranging from 81 to 89 % at 1550 nm wavelength.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_qels.2013.jth2a.103

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We report on high-efficiency superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors based on amorphous tungsten silicide and optimized at 1064 nm. At an operating temperature of 1.8 K, we demonstrated a 93% system detection efficiency at this wavelength with a dark noise of a few counts per second. Combined with cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric downconversion, this fiber-coupled detector enabled us to generate narrowband single photons with a heralding efficiency greater than 90% and a high spectral brightness of 0.6×104 photons/(s·mW·MHz). Beyond single-photon generation at large rate, such high-efficiency detectors open the path to efficient multiple-photon heralding and complex quantum state engineering.
In this Letter, we characterized superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) based on amorphous tungsten germanide (W0.8Ge0.2) superconducting films, which exhibit superconducting properties comparable to those of amorphous WSi. The nanowire width ranges from 60 to 90 nm, with a fixed filling factor of 30%. All fabricated devices exhibit saturated intrinsic detection efficiency for infrared photons with wavelengths up to 2 μm, indicating that WGe is a promising candidate for SNSPDs designed for mid- and far-infrared photon detection. The timing jitter of these detectors, measured with a room-temperature amplifier, ranges from 127 to 234.5 ps. Further improvements can be achieved through device geometry optimization or the implementation of cryogenic amplifiers.
We present an alternative approach to the fabrication of highly efficient superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) based on tungsten silicide. Using well-established technologies for the deposition of dielectric mirrors and anti-reflection coatings in conjunction with an embedded WSi bilayer photon absorber structure, we fabricated a bandwidth-enhanced detector. It exhibits system detection efficiencies (SDE) higher than (87.1±1.3) %\left(87.1\pm1.3\right)\,\%(87.1±1.3)% in the range from 1450 nm1450\,\mathrm{nm}1450nm to 1640 nm1640\,\mathrm{nm}1640nm, with a maximum of (92.9±1.1) %\left(92.9\pm1.1\right)\,\%(92.9±1.1)% at 1515 nm1515\,\mathrm{nm}1515nm. Our measurements indicate SDE enhancements of up to (18.4±1.7) %\left(18.4\pm1.7\right)\,\%(18.4±1.7)% over a single-absorber WSi SNSPD. The latter has been optimized for 1550 nm for comparison and exhibits maximum SDE of (93.5±1.2) %\left(93.5\pm1.2\right)\,\%(93.5±1.2)% at 1555 nm. We emphasize that our technological approach has been tested with, but is not limited to, the wavelengths and absorber material presented here. It could be adapted flexibly for multi-color detector systems from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared wavelength range. This bears the potential for significant improvements in many current quantum optical experiments and applications as well as for detector commercialization.