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Optical Fiber Communication Conference

Multi-channel quantum communication receiver made from waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

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

Published Jan 1, 2021• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a fiber-coupled multi-channel waveguide-integrated superconducting single-photon detector array for fast, efficient and highly parallelized counting with below 65 ps timing accuracy for high-rate quantum key distribution implementations at telecommunication wavelengths.
DOI
10.1364/ofc.2021.m3b.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.
Upcoming quantum technologies require scalable and cost-efficient technical solutions for widespread functionality. In order to exploit the quantum states of light, single-photon detectors are essential for application. Here, we present a low-footprint plug-and-play multi-channel single-photon detector system featuring integrated photonics that allows for ultra-fast quantum key distribution (QKD). Each channel comprises a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) patterned from a niobium-titanium nitride (NbTiN) superconducting film atop silicon nitride waveguide structures. Subsequently, the on-chip photonics are interfaced by broadband 3D polymeric fiber-to-chip couplers to the ports of an 8x8 fiber array. The readout electronics allow for individual evaluation of up to 64 channels simultaneously. Integrated to a QKD experiment, a pair of the system's detection channels achieves secret key rates of up to 2.5 Mbit/s employing a coherent one-way protocol.
With recent advances in quantum technologies for applications such as communication, cryptography, computing, metrology and sensing, the performance and scalability of single-photon detection as a vital key component is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, ongoing efforts in the development of high-performance photonic integrated circuits (PIC) benefit the miniaturization and scalability of these quantum technologies. Waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (WI-SNSPDs) allow to combine excellent performance metrics, such as high detection efficiency, low dark-count rates and low timing jitter below 20 ps with the scalability and functionality that PIC platforms such as Si3N4 provide. We have previously demonstrated broadband efficient single-photon detection with a single device over a range from visible to mid-infrared wavelengths and ultra-fast detector recovery times allowing for up to GHz count rates. Here, we present the utilization of WI-SNSPDs for discrete-variable quantum cryptography receivers with the complete photonic circuitry embedded together with the single-photon detectors on a single silicon chip, where the secret-key rates greatly benefit from the short recovery times of the detectors especially for metropolitan distances. We further realize a fully packaged 64 channel WI-SNSPD matrix for use in a wavelengthdivision multiplexed QKD setup.
Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors (SNSPD) have set leading performance benchmarks in terms of detection efficiency, low noise operation, speed, and timing accuracy. Besides scaling up the numbers of individually addressable nanowire detector channels, integration with nanophotonic functionalities as well as optical and electrical multiplexing will be key to advance single photon counting applications, such as quantum key distribution, optical quantum information processing and simulations of sampling problems. Here we show how integration of SNSPDs with nanophotonic circuit components gives rise to novel use cases. We combine highperformance waveguide-integrated SNSPDs with nano-electromechanical phase-shifters, high speed electro-optic modulators, sub-wavelength grating structures, directional coupler networks, on-chip delay lines and highly efficient and broadband 3D-interconnects to optical fibers, achieving crucial active and passive functionalities for integrated quantum photonics. We showcase the capabilities and practical relevance of photonic integrated SNSPD solutions for the example of high-rate quantum key distribution receivers.