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Frontiers in Optics

High-efficiency fast superconducting nanowire single-photon detector with a reflection grating structure

Miṅ Gu, Xiaolin Lin, Dongmei Liu, Wencong Wang, WU Xian-qiu

Published Jan 1, 2019• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) with a reflection grating structure are designed to enhance system detection efficiency and detection rate. The absorption capacity of the superconducting nanowires reached 92% at wavelengths of 1550 nm. It reduced the total filling factor of superconducting nanowires to only 0.25, decreased the kinetic inductance of SNSPDs, and improved the count rates.

DOI
10.1364/fio.2019.jtu4a.50

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Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) with a reflection grating structure are designed to enhance system detection efficiency and detection rate. The absorption capacity of the superconducting nanowires reached 92% at wavelengths of 1550 nm. It reduced the total filling factor of superconducting nanowires to only 0.25, decreased the kinetic inductance of SNSPDs, and improved the count rates.
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We designed a low-filling-factor and polarization-sensitive superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD), which can achieve a high absorption efficiency and counting rate simultaneously. Numerical simulations show that high absorption efficiency can be achieved by low-filling-factor SNSPDs with a silicon slot and silver reflector. The absorptance of the NbN nanowire for a transverse magnetic (TM) wave at the wavelength of 1550 nm can be 84.4% when the filling factor is only 16.5%, and the corresponding polarization extinction ratio (PER) is 562.9; the absorptance of the NbN nanowire for a transverse electric (TE) wave can be 67.0% when the filling factor is only 11.7%, and the PER is 7.4.
Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors with an optical resonant cavity structure are fabricated directly on the single crystal substrate. In order to enhance the photons absorption of incident light and improve system detection efficiency (SDE) efficiently, the structure of SNSPD was designed and optimized using the finite-difference time-domain analysis for different kinds of substrates. The NbN-SNSPDs fabricated on different substrates are measured and compared. The SDE of NbN-SNSPD on MgO substrate reaches 66 % at the wavelength of 940nm at a dark count rate of 100 cps by illuminating from the back of the device through single mode optical fiber.
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