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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

On-chip, photon-number-resolving, telecom-band detectors for scalable photonic information processing

Thomas Gerrits, Nicholas L. Thomas-Peter, James C. Gates, Adriana E. Lita, Benjamin J. Metcalf, Brice Calkins, Nathan A. Tomlin, Anna E. Fox, Antía Lamas Linares, Justin B. Spring, Nathan K. Langford, Richard P. Mirin, Peter G. R. Smith, Ian A. Walmsley, Sae Woo Nam

Published Jan 1, 2012• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate an integrated photon-number resolving detector, operating in the telecom band at 1550 nm, employing an evanescently coupled design that allows the detector to be placed at arbitrary locations within a planar optical circuit. Up to 5 photons are resolved in the guided optical mode via absorption from the evanescent field into a tungsten transition-edge sensor. The detection efficiency of the absorbing tungsten region is 7.2 %.

DOI
10.1364/qels.2012.qtu1e.1

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We demonstrate an integrated photon-number resolving detector, operating in the telecom band at 1550 nm, employing an evanescently coupled design that allows the detector to be placed at arbitrary locations within a planar optical circuit. Up to 5 photons are resolved in the guided optical mode via absorption from the evanescent field into a tungsten transition-edge sensor. The detection efficiency of the absorbing tungsten region is 7.2 %.
Integration is currently the only feasible route toward scalable photonic quantum processing devices that are sufficiently complex to be genuinely useful in computing, metrology, and simulation. Embedded on-chip detection will be critical to such devices. We demonstrate an integrated photon-number-resolving detector, operating in the telecom band at 1550 nm, employing an evanescently coupled design that allows it to be placed at arbitrary locations within a planar circuit. Up to five photons are resolved in the guided optical mode via absorption from the evanescent field into a tungsten transition-edge sensor. The detection efficiency is $7.2\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}%$. The polarization sensitivity of the detector is also demonstrated. Detailed modeling of device designs shows a clear and feasible route to reaching high detection efficiencies.
The integrated optical circuit is a promising architecture for the realization of complex quantum optical states and information networks. One element that is required for many of these applications is a high-efficiency photon detector capable of photon-number discrimination. We present an integrated photonic system in the telecom band at 1550 nm based on UV-written silica-on-silicon waveguides and modified transition-edge sensors capable of number resolution and over 40 % efficiency. Exploiting the mode transmission failure of these devices, we multiplex three detectors in series to demonstrate a combined 79 % ± 2 % detection efficiency with a single pass, and 88 % ± 3 % at the operating wavelength of an on-chip terminal reflection grating. Furthermore, our optical measurements clearly demonstrate no significant unexplained loss in this system due to scattering or reflections. This waveguide and detector design therefore allows the placement of number-resolving single-photon detectors of predictable efficiency at arbitrary locations within a photonic circuit - a capability that offers great potential for many quantum optical applications.
Many quantum-information applications require high-efficiency, low-noise, single-photon detectors that operate at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The tunable superconducting critical temperature and anomalously low electron-phonon coupling of tungsten make it a suitable material for the fabrication of transition-edge sensors (TESs) that meet these requirements. The quantum efficiency of a typical tungsten TES detector, intrinsically around 15% at 1550 nm, can be increased by placing the tungsten detector in a resonant cavity, but the performance of a device embedded in a cavity has not been tested previously. We demonstrate that the presence of the cavity does not adversely affect the sensitivity or response time, and we report on the device characteristics of a new generation of tungsten TESs with greater than 80% quantum efficiency at 1550 nm.