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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Waveguide-Integrated Superconducting Nanowire SinglePhoton Detector Array for Ultra-Fast Quantum Key Distribution

Martin A. Wolff, Fabian Beutel, Matthias Häußler, Helge Gehring, Robin Stegmüller, Nicolai Walter, Wladick Hartmann, Max Tillmann, Michael Wahl, Tino Röhlicke, Andreas Bülter, Doreen Wernicke, Nicolas Perlot, Jasper Rödiger, Wolfram H. P. Pernice, Carsten Schuck

Published Jan 1, 2020• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present an array of 16 superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors made from NbTiN thin films on Si3N4-waveguides that we interface with 3D printed couplers providing wide transmission bandwidth.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_si.2020.sm4o.5

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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.
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors are an ideal match for integrated quantum photonic circuits due to their high detection efficiency for telecom wavelength photons. Quantum optical technology also requires single-photon detection with low dark count rate and high timing accuracy. Here we present very low noise superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors based on NbTiN thin films patterned directly on top of Si3N4 waveguides. We systematically investigate a large variety of detector designs and characterize their detection noise performance. Milli-Hz dark count rates are demonstrated over the entire operating range of the nanowire detectors which also feature low timing jitter. The ultra-low dark count rate, in combination with the high detection efficiency inherent to our travelling wave detector geometry, gives rise to a measured noise equivalent power at the 10(-20) W/Hz(1/2) level.
Quantum technologies and optical sensors with ultimate sensitivity require efficient counting of single photons. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors have set leading performance benchmarks in this regard but evolving from stand-alone fiber-coupled detectors to highly integrated receivers with large numbers of photonic channels and configurable optical functionalities has remained a challenge. Here we show how large numbers of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with high detection efficiency and low timing jitter can be integrated with nanophotonic circuits. The latter allow for combining photon counting capabilities of superconducting nanowires with active and passive optical control functionalities, such as switching, phase shifting and photon number resolution, which we demonstrate for leading photonic integrated circuit platforms. Broadband optical interconnects produced in 3D direct laser writing enable competitive system detection efficiency, which we can reproduce in a receiver unit that integrates 64 individually addressable superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. We show that the system is well-suited for massively parallelized quantum key distribution, achieving secret key generation rates beyond 10 Mbit/sec in a field test. Integrating large numbers of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors with optical waveguides on configurable nanophotonic chips offers a wide range of applications in quantum communication, information processing and sensing.