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Research in Optical Sciences

Experimental demonstration of a novel superconducting photon number resolving detector

G. Frucci, Saeedeh Jahanmirinejad, F. Mattioli, Alessandro Gaggero, Dondu Sahin, Roberto Leoni, Andrea Fiore

Published Jan 1, 2012• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We report the experimental demonstration of a novel photon number resolving detector (PNR) structure which can exhibit a large dynamic range. It is based on the series connection of N superconducting nanowires.
DOI
10.1364/qim.2012.qt5a.7

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We propose a novel photon number resolving detector structure with large dynamic range. It consists of the series connection of N superconducting nanowires, each connected in parallel to an integrated resistor. Photon absorption in a wire switches its current to the parallel resistor producing a voltage pulse and the sum of these voltages is measured at the output. The combination of this structure and a high input impedance preamplifier result in linear, high fidelity, and fast photon detection in the range from one to several tens of photons.
We present the experimental demonstration of a superconducting photon number resolving detector. It is based on the series connection of N superconducting nanowires, each connected in parallel to an integrated resistor. The device provides a single voltage readout, proportional to the number of photons absorbed in distinct nanowires. Clearly separated output levels corresponding to the detection of n=1-4 photons are observed in a 4-element detector fabricated from an NbN film on GaAs substrate, with a single-photon system quantum efficiency of 2.6% at the wavelength of 1300nm. The series-nanowire structure is promising in view of its scalability to large photon numbers and high efficiencies.
Abstract In recent years, photon-number-resolving (PNR) detectors have attracted great interest, mainly because they can play a key role in diverse application fields. A PNR detector with a large dynamic range would represent an ideal photon detector, bringing the linear response of conventional analogue detectors down to the single-photon level. Several technologies, such as InGaAs single photon avalanche detectors (SPADs), arrays of silicon photomultipliers, InGaAs SPADs with self-differencing circuits and transition edge sensors have shown photon number resolving capability. Superconducting nanowires provide free-running single-photon sensitivity from visible to mid-infrared frequencies, low dark counts, excellent timing resolution (<60 ps) and short dead time (∼10 ns), at an easily accessible temperature (2–3 K), but they do not inherently resolve the photon number. In this framework, PNR detectors based on arrays of superconducting nanowires have been proposed. In this article we describe a number of methods and device configurations that have been pursued to obtain PNR capability using superconducting nanowire detectors.
Photon-number-resolving (PNR) is an important functionality in many applications. The traditional single photon detectors (SNSPDs) operated with the conventional readout scheme does not have the PNR functionality. In this paper, we demonstrate a superconducting photon-number-resolving detector operating at the visible wavelength regime, based on the serial connection of six superconducting nanowires. The results of our 6-element PNR device show clear evidence of n-photons differentiation with n ranging from 1 to 6. The system detection efficiency reaches 54% with the dark counts rate below 10 Hz at 660 nm. The demonstrated 6-element PNR device does not require a complex readout circuit compared with the SNSPD array device, and is expected to have wider applications in addition to imaging and communication.