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International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks

Cavity-Enhanced Superconducting Single Photon Detectors

Julian Münzberg, Andreas Vetter, Wladislaw Hartmann, Nico Gruhler, Fabian Beutel, Simone Ferrari, Carsten Rockstuhl, Wolfram H. P. Pernice

Published Jul 1, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Single photon technology is enabling for quantum communication and processing. Combining single photon sources, routing circuitry and highly efficient detectors in a high yield, low-loss and scalable fashion represent today a major challenge. Nanophotonic devices allow for the realization of on-chip small footprint architectures for generating, manipulating and detecting single photons. Waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single photon detectors are today state-of-the art devices capable of detecting single photons propagating in an integrated photonic circuit with high efficiency, speed and low timing uncertainty. Their excellent metrics in the near-infrared allows to directly interface on-chip devices with existing C-Band communication technology systems. To move towards high communication speed, efficient detectors able to sustain Gcps count rate are desirable. Here we present the design process and the experimental characterization of a new generation of fast detectors, consisting of µm-long NbN superconducting nanowires embedded in a SOI two-dimensional photonic crystal cavity. Almost 70% efficiency at telecommunication wavelengths has been achieved with negligible dark counts and sub-ns recovery time, which could enable Gcps count rates.

DOI
10.1109/icton.2018.8473663

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Single photon technology is enabling for quantum communication and processing. Combining single photon sources, routing circuitry and highly efficient detectors in a high yield, low-loss and scalable fashion represent today a major challenge. Nanophotonic devices allow for the realization of on-chip small footprint architectures for generating, manipulating and detecting single photons. Waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single photon detectors are today state-of-the art devices capable of detecting single photons propagating in an integrated photonic circuit with high efficiency, speed and low timing uncertainty. Their excellent metrics in the near-infrared allows to directly interface on-chip devices with existing C-Band communication technology systems. To move towards high communication speed, efficient detectors able to sustain Gcps count rate are desirable. Here we present the design process and the experimental characterization of a new generation of fast detectors, consisting of µm-long NbN superconducting nanowires embedded in a SOI two-dimensional photonic crystal cavity. Almost 70% efficiency at telecommunication wavelengths has been achieved with negligible dark counts and sub-ns recovery time, which could enable Gcps count rates.
The combination of efficient single-photon generation, manipulation, and detection on a single chip poses a major challenge for quantum photonics and all-optical quantum computing. Among a multitude of detection technologies, waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors stand out as they promise near-unity detection efficiencies at outstanding timing accuracy and speed. Here, by exploiting the concept of critical coupling, we present the integration of a short nanowire into a two-dimensional double heterostructure photonic crystal cavity to realize an integrated single-photon detector with excellent performance metric. The complete detector characterization reveals on-chip detection efficiencies of almost 70% at telecom wavelengths, recovery times of 480 ps, and vanishingly low dark count rates. Our design paves the way for the implementation of compact on-chip detector arrays and time-multiplexed single-detector schemes.
Nanophotonic integrated circuits are emerging as a promising platform for quantum photonics. A key building block are waveguide integrated detectors with superior performance. Detectors based on superconductor nanowires (SNSPDs) attached to optical waveguides have been shown to provide high efficiency and good timing performance, as well as broad bandwidth. To move towards applications in high bandwidth quantum communication and processing, ultrafast single-photon detectors with high efficiency are needed. The speed of meander type SNSPDs is limited because the required high absorption efficiency necessitates long nanowires deposited on top of the waveguide. This enhances the kinetic inductance and makes the detectors slow. We overcome this problem by aligning the nanowire perpendicular to the waveguide to realize devices with a length below 1 µm. By integrating the nanowire into a photonic crystal cavity, we recover high absorption efficiency, thus enhancing the detection efficiency by more than an order of magnitude. Our cavity enhanced superconducting nanowire detectors are fully embedded in silicon nanophotonic circuits and efficiently detect single photons at telecom wavelengths. The detectors possess sub-nanosecond decay (~ 120 ps) and recovery times (~ 510 ps), and thus show potential for GHz count rates at low timing jitter (~ 32 ps).
Ultrafast single-photon detectors with high efficiency are of utmost importance for many applications in the context of integrated quantum photonic circuits. Detectors based on superconductor nanowires attached to optical waveguides are particularly appealing for this purpose. However, their speed is limited because the required high absorption efficiency necessitates long nanowires deposited on top of the waveguide. This enhances the kinetic inductance and makes the detectors slow. Here, we solve this problem by aligning the nanowire, contrary to usual choice, perpendicular to the waveguide to realize devices with a length below 1 μm. By integrating the nanowire into a photonic crystal cavity, we recover high absorption efficiency, thus enhancing the detection efficiency by more than an order of magnitude. Our cavity enhanced superconducting nanowire detectors are fully embedded in silicon nanophotonic circuits and efficiently detect single photons at telecom wavelengths. The detectors possess subnanosecond decay (∼120 ps) and recovery times (∼510 ps) and thus show potential for GHz count rates at low timing jitter (∼32 ps). The small absorption volume allows efficient threshold multiphoton detection.
Ultrafast, high-efficiency single-photon detectors are among the most sought-after elements in modern quantum optics and quantum communication. However, imperfect modal matching and finite photon absorption rates have usually limited their maximum attainable detection efficiency. Here we demonstrate superconducting nanowire detectors atop nanophotonic waveguides, which enable a drastic increase of the absorption length for incoming photons. This allows us to achieve high on-chip single-photon detection efficiency up to 91% at telecom wavelengths, repeatable across several fabricated chips. We also observe remarkably low dark count rates without significant compromise of the on-chip detection efficiency. The detectors are fully embedded in scalable silicon photonic circuits and provide ultrashort timing jitter of 18 ps. Exploiting this high temporal resolution, we demonstrate ballistic photon transport in silicon ring resonators. Our direct implementation of a high-performance single-photon detector on chip overcomes a major barrier in integrated quantum photonics. High-efficiency and high-speed single-photon detectors are vital for quantum optical technologies. Using superconducting nanowire detectors on nanophotonic waveguides, Pernice et al.demonstrate on-chip single-photon detection efficiencies up to 91% at telecommunications wavelengths.
With recent advances in quantum technologies for applications such as communication, cryptography, computing, metrology and sensing, the performance and scalability of single-photon detection as a vital key component is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, ongoing efforts in the development of high-performance photonic integrated circuits (PIC) benefit the miniaturization and scalability of these quantum technologies. Waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (WI-SNSPDs) allow to combine excellent performance metrics, such as high detection efficiency, low dark-count rates and low timing jitter below 20 ps with the scalability and functionality that PIC platforms such as Si3N4 provide. We have previously demonstrated broadband efficient single-photon detection with a single device over a range from visible to mid-infrared wavelengths and ultra-fast detector recovery times allowing for up to GHz count rates. Here, we present the utilization of WI-SNSPDs for discrete-variable quantum cryptography receivers with the complete photonic circuitry embedded together with the single-photon detectors on a single silicon chip, where the secret-key rates greatly benefit from the short recovery times of the detectors especially for metropolitan distances. We further realize a fully packaged 64 channel WI-SNSPD matrix for use in a wavelengthdivision multiplexed QKD setup.
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.