Multi-element superconducting single-photon detector

Shigehito Miki

Shigehito Miki, Shigeyuki Miyajima, Masahiro Yabuno +2 more

M. Hofherr, K. Ilin, Dagmar Rall +9 more

Shigehito Miki, Taro Yamashita, Hirotaka Terai +1 more

Maria Moshkova, Pavel Morozov, A.V. Antipov +2 more

We present the result of the creation and investigation of the multi-element superconducting single photon detectors, which can recognize the number of photons (up to six) in a short pulse of the radiation at telecommunication wavelengths range. The best receivers coupled with single-mode fiber have the system quantum efficiency of ⁓85%. The receivers have a 100 ps time resolution and a few nanoseconds dead time that allows them to operate at megahertz counting rate. Implementation of the multi-element architecture for creation of the superconducting single photon detectors with increased sensitive area allows to create the high efficiency receivers coupled with multi-mode fibers and with preserving of the all advantages of superconducting photon counters.

Eric A. Dauler, Bryan S. Robinson, Andrew J. Kerman +6 more

A multi-element superconducting nanowire single photon detector (MESNSPD) is presented that consists of multiple independently-biased superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) elements that form a continuous active area. A two-element SNSPD has been fabricated and tested, showing no measurable crosstalk between the elements, sub-50-ps relative timing jitter, and four times the maximum counting rate of a single SNSPD with the same active area. The MESNSPD can have a larger active area and higher speed than a single-element SNSPD and the input optics can be designed so that the detector provides spatial, spectral or photon number resolution.