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EPJ Web of Conferences

Heterodyne spectroscopy with superconducting single-photon detector

Yu. V. Lobanov, Michael Shcherbatenko, Alexander V. Semenov, Vadim V. Kovalyuk, Alexander A. Korneev, Gregory N Gol'tsman

Published Dec 13, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate successful operation of a Superconducting Single Photon Detector (SSPD) as the core element in a heterodyne receiver. Irradiating the SSPD by both a local oscillator power and signal power simultaneously, we observed beat signal at the intermediate frequency of a few MHz. Gain bandwidth was found to coincide with the detector single pulse width, where the latter depends on the detector kinetic inductance, determined by the superconducting nanowire length.

DOI
10.1051/epjconf/201713201005

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We demonstrate successful operation of a Superconducting Single Photon Detector (SSPD) as the core element in a heterodyne receiver. Irradiating the SSPD by both a local oscillator power and signal power simultaneously, we observed beat signal at the intermediate frequency of a few MHz. Gain bandwidth was found to coincide with the detector single pulse width, where the latter depends on the detector kinetic inductance, determined by the superconducting nanowire length.
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Superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) are nanostructured devices made from ultrathin superconducting films. They are typically operated at liquid helium temperature and exhibit high detection efficiency, in combination with very low dark counts, fast response time, and extremely low timing jitter, within a broad wavelength range from ultraviolet to mid-infrared (up to 6mum). SSPDs are very attractive for applications such as fiber-based telecommunication, where single-photon sensitivity and high photon-counting rates are required. We review the current state-of-the-art in the SSPD research and development, and compare the SSPD performance to the best semiconducting avalanche photodiodes and other superconducting photon detectors. Furthermore, we demonstrate that SSPDs can also be successfully implemented in photon-energy-resolving experiments. Our approach is based on the fact that the size of the hotspot, a nonsuperconducting region generated upon photon absorption, is linearly dependent on the photon energy. We introduce a statistical method, where, by measuring the SSPD system detection efficiency at different bias currents, we are able to resolve the wavelength of the incident photons with a resolution of 50 nm.
We present our recent progress in development of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SSPD) system. Our practical SSPD system with a compactGifford-McMahon cryocooler successfully achieved the high system detection efficiency of 74%, low dark count of 100 cps, and small timing jitter of 68 ps in one device simultaneously, which is useful for actual applications. Furthermore, we propose and demonstrate a new strategy to resolve a trade-off problem between the system detection efficiency and counting rate (speed) in the SSPD.
© 2002-2011 IEEE. Superconducting nanowires are widely used as sensitive single photon detectors with wide spectral coverage and high timing resolution. We describe a demonstration of an array of dc-biased superconducting nanowire single photon detectors read out with a microwave multiplexing circuit. In this design, each individual nanowire is part of a resonant LC circuit where the inductance is dominated by the kinetic inductance of the nanowire. The circuit also contains two parallel plate capacitors, one of them is in parallel with the inductor and the other is coupled to a microwave transmission line that carries the signals to a cryogenic low-noise amplifier. All of the nanowires are connected via resistors to a single dc bias line that enables the nanowires to be current biased close to their critical current. When a photon hits a nanowire, it creates a normal hotspot that produces a voltage pulse across the LC circuit. This pulse rings down at the resonant frequency of the LC circuit over a time period that is fixed by the quality factor. We present measurements of an array of these devices and an evaluation of their performance in terms of frequency and time response.