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Optics Express

High-speed and high-efficiency superconducting nanowire single photon detector array

Danna Rosenberg, Andrew J. Kerman, R. J. Molnar, Eric A. Dauler

Published Jan 14, 2013• 191 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have separately demonstrated high efficiency, low noise, and extremely high speed when detecting single photons. However, achieving all of these simultaneously has been limited by detector subtleties and tradeoffs. Here, we report an SNSPD system with <80 ps timing resolution, kHz noise count rates, and 76% fiber-coupled system detection efficiency in the low-flux limit at 1550 nm. We present a model for determining the detection efficiency penalty due to the detection recovery time, and we validate our method using experimental data obtained at high count rates. We demonstrate improved performance tradeoffs, such as 68% system detection efficiency, including losses due to detector recovery time, when coupled to a Poisson source emitting 100 million photons per second. Our system can provide limited photon number resolution, continuous cryogen-free operation, and scalability to future imaging and GHz-count-rate applications.

DOI
10.1364/oe.21.001440

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Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have separately demonstrated high efficiency, low noise, and extremely high speed when detecting single photons. However, achieving all of these simultaneously has been limited by detector subtleties and tradeoffs. Here, we report an SNSPD system with <80 ps timing resolution, kHz noise count rates, and 76% fiber-coupled system detection efficiency in the low-flux limit at 1550 nm. We present a model for determining the detection efficiency penalty due to the detection recovery time, and we validate our method using experimental data obtained at high count rates. We demonstrate improved performance tradeoffs, such as 68% system detection efficiency, including losses due to detector recovery time, when coupled to a Poisson source emitting 100 million photons per second. Our system can provide limited photon number resolution, continuous cryogen-free operation, and scalability to future imaging and GHz-count-rate applications.
We describe a number of methods that have been pursued to develop superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) with attractive overall performance, including three systems that operate with >70% system detection efficiency and high maximum counting rates at wavelengths near 1550 nm. The advantages and tradeoffs of various approaches to efficient optical coupling, electrical readout, and SNSPD design are described and contrasted. Optical interfaces to the detectors have been based on fiber coupling, either directly to the detector or through the substrate, using both single-mode and multimode fibers with different approaches to alignment. Recent advances in electrical interfaces have focused on the challenges of scalability and ensuring stable detector operation at high count rates. Prospects for further advances in these and other methods are also described, which may enable larger arrays and higher-performance SNSPD systems in the future. Finally, the use of some of these techniques to develop fully packaged SNSPD systems will be described and the performance available from these recently developed systems will be reviewed.
Fast and efficient detection of single photons with high timing accuracy is a crucial requirement in most quantum optics experiments and enables novel sensing and imaging solutions. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD) achieve technology-leading performance in terms of detection efficiency, dark count rate, timing jitter, and detector dead times. However, conventional SNSPDs with high system detection efficiency typically rely on resonant enhancement of the absorption efficiency, thus only achieving attractive detector benchmarks over narrow spectral windows. Waveguide-integrated SNSPDs allow for leveraging the wideband material absorption in superconducting nanowires by absorbing light in a traveling-wave geometry but have been limited to low system detection efficiencies due to interface losses when coupling to optical fibers. Here, we show how high system detection efficiencies of 22%–73% are realized over a broad wavelength range from 532 nm to 1640 nm in a single waveguide-integrated SNSPD device. We accomplish efficient coupling between optical fibers and waveguide-integrated nanowire detectors by employing a 3D interface, produced in direct laser writing, that relies on total internal reflection for achieving a broad transmission bandwidth. We further find low timing jitter of 25.7 ps and detector decay times of 9.8 ns, allowing for single-photon counting with high repetition rates up to 100 MHz. Our work paves the way for an efficient single-photon detector solution that combines the spectral requirements of an extremely wide range of quantum optics experiments in a single device. The coupling approach and SNSPD-integration with nanophotonic circuits are further well-suited for realizing large-scale detector arrays.
Single-photon sources and detectors are key enabling technologies for photonics in quantum information science and technology (QIST). QIST applications place high-level demands on the performance of sources and detectors; it is therefore essential that their properties can be characterized accurately. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have spectral sensitivity from visible to beyond 2 μm in wavelength, picosecond timing resolution (Jitter <100 ps FWHM) and the capacity to operate ungated with low dark counts (<1 kHz). This facilitates data acquisition at high rates with an excellent signal-to-noise ratio. We report on the construction and characterization of a two-channel SNSPD system. The detectors are mounted in a closed-cycle refrigerator, which eliminates reliance on liquid cryogens. Our specification was to deliver a system with 1% efficiency in both channels at a wavelength of 1310 nm with 1 kHz dark count rate. A full width at half maximum timing jitter of less than 90 ps is achieved in both channels. The system will be used to detect individual photons generated by quantum-optical sources at telecom wavelengths. Examples include single-photon sources based on quantum dots (emitting at 1310 nm). The SNSPD system's spectral sensitivity and timing resolution make it suited to characterization of such sources, and to wider QIST applications.
Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have demonstrated advantages over traditional detectors in many fields [1]. Most fiber-coupled SNSPDs are coupled to single mode fibers, limiting their usability for applications where large surface area detectors are needed, for example fluorescence detection and satellite-based quantum communication [2][3]. Other important requirements for many applications are broadband detection efficiency, and low timing jitter [4]. So far, the increased meander length of multimode detectors, and the therefore increased kinetic inductance and number of imperfections due to film inhomogeneities have limited the timing jitter [5]. Moreover, combining low timing jitter with high detection efficiency and low dark count rate in one device is challenging due to the tradeoffs between different properties of SNSPDs [6]. In this paper, we achieved high efficiency and strong saturation over a broad wavelength range with a low timing jitter of 16.99 ps while maintaining a low dark count rate of < 0.2 Hz for an SNSPD coupled to a 50 µm core multimode fiber. To enhance the broadband absorption from 405 nm to 830 nm, detectors were fabricated on an optimized SiO2 cavity and Aluminum mirror. The geometry of the nanowire was also tuned to reach a good internal saturation of efficiency over the visible/NIR range but also to carry high current to get a large signal. Furthermore, a cryogenic readout amplifier was optimized to improve the signal to noise ratio and thus lead to high time resolution. Our devices can be readily used to enable higher resolution and faster quantum optics, bio-imaging, laser ranging and other optical experiments.
Abstract Count rate (CR) is one of the key parameters of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs). The practical SNSPDs usually have a CR of a few MHz to a few tens of MHz owing to the large kinetic inductance originating from the long nanowire, which is necessary for effectively coupling the photons. A feasible approach to decrease the kinetic inductance and consequently increase the detection speed is to replace a long single nanowire with multiple individual nanowires in an array. In this study, we report an SNSPD of nine interleaved nanowires with 70% system detection efficiency (SDE) and 200 Hz dark count rate at the low-photon-flux limit of 1550 nm. Owing to the small dead time (<6 ns) of each nanowire, the SNSPD achieved a maximum CR of 0.93 GHz at a photon flux of 1.26 × 10 10 photons s −1 with an SDE of ∼7.4%, and a CR of 200 MHz with an SDE of over 50%. Furthermore, a photon number resolvability of up to nine photons was also demonstrated.
Since their inception, superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors have been enabling quantum optical applications and the rise of the photonic quantum industry. The evolution in the detector design and read-out strategies has led to the introduction of devices with a plurality of independent pixels, which have been able to operate with high system detection efficiency at high speed while also supporting photon number resolution capabilities. However, this comes at the cost of a complex readout that requires one coaxial cable for each pixel of the array. Here, we report a 28-pixel SNSPD with a dedicated parallel architecture that, while maintaining a simple readout with a single coaxial line, enables the detector to operate at high speed with low-performance degradation. The device shows a maximum single-photon efficiency of 88% and is able to maintain its efficiency above 50%, coupled with a timing jitter lower than 80 ps, up to a detection rate of 200 million counts per second. The detector also provides state-of-the-art photon-number-resolving performances with a 2-photon efficiency of 75% and a 3-photon efficiency of 62%.