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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

A Low Power Superconductor-To-Optoelectronic Interface

Adam N. McCaughan, Sonia Mary Buckley, Varun Boehm Verma, Alexander N. Tait, S. W. Nam, Jeffrey M. Shainline

Published May 5, 2019• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a ultrahigh-impedance superconducting thermal switch that acts as a superconductor-to-optoelectronic interface. We demonstrated the generation of photons in a cryogenic photonic LED from a low-voltage input, detecting those photons with a waveguide-coupled detector. © 2019 The Author(s)
DOI
10.23919/cleo.2019.8749582

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The basic concepts of the ultrafast optoelectronic interface for superconducting digital electronics are presented. Several implementations of both the input optical-to-electrical and the output electrical-to-optical transducers are discussed. As an example, an optoelectronic telecommunication router is used that is capable of switching signals at a >100 Gbit s −1 rate on a single wavelength. We demonstrate that superconducting optoelectronics emerges as the ultimate solution to the ultrafast input/output (I/O) interface of single-flux-quantum (SFQ)-based, superconducting digital electronics.
Interfacing single-photon detectors with active photonic components is a cornerstone photonic quantum technology. We describe how the output signal of commercial superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors can be used in situ to drive photonic components such as lasers and electro-optic modulators, co-located in the cryostat. This is enabled by developing custom circuitry using cryogenic-compatible discrete components in the SiGe-BiCMOS platform. We have demonstrated this with a number of experiments, in particular optical readout of an SNSPD and low-latency feed-forward modulation based on single-photon measurement events, all at or below 4 K. This manuscript is an abridged version of the Master thesis of the primary author N. Lamberty.
Weakly connected superconductors can function as very low power sensors by utilizing the coherence properties of superconductors. One configuration which has produced significant success incorporates a superconducting point contact and a small resistance element in a low-inductance superconducting circuit. When the critical supercurrent (ic) of the point contact is of the order of φ0/L, (φ0=h/2e, L=inductance of the ring), that circuit exhibits coherent quantum behavior. Used as a parametric amplifier, it has been used to measure ultralow voltages, limited by the thermal noise fluctuations in the resistance element R. The voltage sensitivity is approximated by 8kTR/φ0, where k is Boltzmann's constant and T the absolute temperature of the resistance R. We have measured 4×10−16 V across 1.7×10−10 Ω at 4.2°K with a signal-to-noise ratio approaching 10. The operation of this sensor follows from the Josephson oscillation of voltage-biased superconducting point contacts. A dc voltage V0 across the resistance of the circuit produces an oscillating current at the angular frequency ωJ=2πV0/φ0 and an oscillating voltage across the point contact at ωJ. Upon supplying an rf or microwave current at frequency ωD, the point contact mixes ωJ and ωD. Using a homodyne detector at ωD of bandwidth larger than ωJ, we can retrieve the oscillation at ωJ. Direct measurement of this frequency ωJ yields V0. Such superconducting circuits may be useful as cryogenic thermometers, as thermal radiation sensors, and in low-level spectroscopy.
The realisation of light modulation based on single photon detection events is an important step towards feed-forward-modulation, which is required for many quantum optics protocols. This requires combining detection events with modulation in a device with a small physical footprint, for which integrated optics is ideal. Several platforms for integrated quantum optics have been developed to generate, modulate, and detect quantum features in the light over the last years. Titanium in-diffused waveguides in lithium niobate is a promising candidate for quantum communication applications [1] , [2] , however, single photon detection with superconducting photon detectors (SNSPDs) require cryogenic temperatures. Therefore, optimising the nonlinear optical properties of these waveguides under cryogenic operating conditions is an important task. Previously, we have demonstrated frequency conversion [3] , electro-optical modulation [4] and integrated single photon detection [5] at cryogenic temperatures.