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Multimode Fiber Coupled Superconducting Nanowire Transition Edge Sensor for Detection of Single-Photon at Optical and Near-Infrared Wave Lengths

Venkata Naga Vamsi Annepu, Annepu Bhujanga Rao, Venkata Lakshmi Narayana Komanapalli

Published Jul 1, 2015• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We report the development of the multimode fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire transition edge sensor with high system detection efficiency at optical and near-infrared wavelength. The SNTES consists of an absorber, a sensitive thermometer, and a weak thermal link to a cold bath, For a SNTES optimized to detect single photons, the temperature change caused by the absorption of a single photo is read out by the thermometer, and the system resets by cooling through the thermal link. The graded index (GRIN) lenses were spliced to the end of the multi mode fiber with a 50 µm diameter core, and the incident light spot diameter was focused to approximately 20 µm at the active area, which is 28 µm diameter, allowing a good optical coupling. We have achieved a nominal coupling efficiency of 91 % and system efficiency of 76 % by the SNTES at 1310 nm -1350 nm. The developed practical SNTES presented in this paper could open a new frontier for a wide range of applications at optical and infrared wavelength.

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We report the development of the multimode fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire transition edge sensor with high system detection efficiency at optical and near-infrared wavelength. The SNTES consists of an absorber, a sensitive thermometer, and a weak thermal link to a cold bath, For a SNTES optimized to detect single photons, the temperature change caused by the absorption of a single photo is read out by the thermometer, and the system resets by cooling through the thermal link. The graded index (GRIN) lenses were spliced to the end of the multi mode fiber with a 50 µm diameter core, and the incident light spot diameter was focused to approximately 20 µm at the active area, which is 28 µm diameter, allowing a good optical coupling. We have achieved a nominal coupling efficiency of 91 % and system efficiency of 76 % by the SNTES at 1310 nm -1350 nm. The developed practical SNTES presented in this paper could open a new frontier for a wide range of applications at optical and infrared wavelength.
We report the development of the multimode fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire transition edge sensor with high system detection efficiency at optical and near-infrared wavelength. The SNTES consists of an absorber, a sensitive thermometer, and a weak thermal link to a cold bath, For a SNTES optimized to detect single photons, the temperature change caused by the absorption of a single photo is read out by the thermometer, and the system resets by cooling through the thermal link. The graded index (GRIN) lenses were spliced to the end of the multi mode fiber with a 50 µm diameter core, and the incident light spot diameter was focused to approximately 20 µm at the active area, which is 28 µm diameter, allowing a good optical coupling. We have achieved a nominal coupling efficiency of 91 % and system efficiency of 76 % by the SNTES at 1310 nm -1350 nm. The developed practical SNTES presented in this paper could open a new frontier for a wide range of applications at optical and infrared wavelength. Copyright © 2015 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
We report the development of the multimode fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detector with high system detection efficiency at visible wavelength. The detector consists of a 10.5-nm-thick and 150-nm-wide NbN nanowire meander fabricated on a Si substrate with a multilayer dielectric mirror and a quarter wavelength cavity for obtaining high optical absorptance. The meander area was 35 µm in diameter and coupled with the GRIN-lensed multimode optical fiber with a core diameter of 50 µm. The system reached detection efficiency of 70% with dark count rate of 100 Hz at the wavelength of 635 nm, 3 dB roll-off response counting rate of 8.5 Mcps, and timing jitter of 76 ps.
High-performance superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have facilitated numerous experiments and applications, particularly in the fields of modern quantum optics and quantum communication. Two kinds of optical coupling methods have thus far been developed for SNSPDs: one produces standard fiber-coupled SNSPDs in which the fibers vertically illuminate the meandered nanowires; the other produces waveguide-coupled SNSPDs in which nanowires are fabricated on the surface of a waveguide that guides photons, and the fibers are coupled to the waveguide. In this paper, we report on first experimental demonstration of a new type of SNSPD that is coupled with a microfiber (MF). Photons are guided by the MF and are evanescently absorbed by the nanowires of the SNSPD when the MF is placed on top of superconducting NbN nanowires. Room-temperature optical experiments indicated that this device has a coupling efficiency of up to 90% when a 1.3 μm-diameter MF is used for light with wavelength of 1550 nm. We were also able to demonstrate that our MF-coupled detector achieved system detection efficiencies of 50% and 20% at incident wavelengths of 1064 and 1550 nm, respectively, for a 2 μm-diameter MF at 2.2K. We expect that MF-coupled SNSPDs may show both high efficiency and broadband characteristics upon optimization and will be used for various novel applications, such as micro/nano-fiber optics.
In the past decade, superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have gradually become an indispensable part of any demanding quantum optics experiment. Until now, most SNSPDs have been coupled to single-mode fibers. SNSPDs coupled to multimode fibers have shown promising efficiencies but have yet to achieve high time resolution. For a number of applications ranging from quantum nano-photonics to bio-optics, high efficiency and high time resolution are desired at the same time. In this paper, we demonstrate the role of polarization on the efficiency of multimode-fiber-coupled detectors and fabricated high-performance 20 µm, 25 µm, and 50 µm diameter detectors targeted for visible, near-infrared, and telecom wavelengths. A custom-built setup was used to simulate realistic experiments with randomized modes in the fiber. We achieved over 80% system efficiency and $ {\lt} {20}\;{\rm ps}$<20ps timing jitter for 20 µm SNSPDs. Also, we realized 70% system efficiency and $ {\lt} {20}\;{\rm ps}$<20ps timing jitter for 50 µm SNSPDs. The high-efficiency multimode-fiber-coupled SNSPDs with unparalleled time resolution will benefit various quantum optics experiments and applications in the future.
Single-photon detectors operating at visible and near-infrared wavelengths with high detection efficiency and low noise are a requirement for many quantum-information applications. Superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs) are capable of detecting visible and near-infrared light at the single-photon level and are capable of discriminating between one- and two-photon absorption events; however these capabilities place stringent design requirements on the TES heat capacity, thermometry, and optical detection efficiency. We describe the fabrication and evaluation of a fiber-coupled, photon-number-resolving TES detector optimized for absorption at 1550 and 1310 nm wavelengths. The measured system detection efficiency at 1556 nm is 95 % +/- 2 %, which to our knowledge is the highest system detection efficiency reported for a near-infrared single-photon detector.
Satellite-ground quantum communication requires single-photon detectors of 850-nm wavelength with both high detection efficiency and large sensitive area. We developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) on one-dimensional photonic crystals, which acted as optical cavities to enhance the optical absorption, with a sensitive-area diameter of 50 μm. The fabricated multimode fiber coupled NbN SNSPDs exhibited a maximum system detection efficiency (DE) of up to 82% and a DE of 78% at a dark count rate of 100 Hz at 850-nm wavelength as well as a system jitter of 105 ps.