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ACS Photonics

Molybdenum Silicide Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors on Lithium Niobate Waveguides

Marco Colangelo, Di Zhu, Linbo Shao, Jeffrey Holzgrafe, Emma Batson, Boris Desiatov, Owen Medeiros, Matthew Yeung, Marko Lončar, Karl K. Berggren

Published Jan 16, 2024• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a molybdenum silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detector heterogeneously integrated onto a thin-film lithium niobate waveguide. The detector achieves approximately 50% on-chip detection efficiency at 1550 nm with a jitter of 82 ps when measured at 0.78 K. This demonstration showcases the integration of an amorphous superconductor utilizing conventional fabrication processes without strict cooling and substrate requirements. This paves the way for the integration of additional superconducting electronic components, potentially realizing the full promise of integrated quantum photonic circuits.

DOI
10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01628

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We demonstrate a molybdenum silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detector heterogeneously integrated onto a thin-film lithium niobate waveguide. The detector achieves approximately 50% on-chip detection efficiency at 1550 nm with a jitter of 82 ps when measured at 0.78 K. This demonstration showcases the integration of an amorphous superconductor utilizing conventional fabrication processes without strict cooling and substrate requirements. This paves the way for the integration of additional superconducting electronic components, potentially realizing the full promise of integrated quantum photonic circuits.
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We demonstrate waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors on thin-film lithium niobate (LN). Using a 250 um-long NbN superconducting nanowire lithographically defined on top of a 125 um-long LN nanowaveguide, on-chip detection efficiency of 46% is realized with simultaneous high performance in dark count rate and timing jitter. As LN possesses high second-order nonlinear \c{hi}(2) and electro-optic properties, an efficient single-photon detector on thin-film LN opens up the possibility to construct small scale fully-integrated quantum photonic chip which includes single-photon sources, filters, tunable quantum gates and detectors.
We demonstrate an amorphous molybdenum–rhenium (MoRe) film on a thin-film lithium niobate substrate as an efficient superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) operating at T = 2.5 K. MoRe films were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering with a composite target of 56 at. % Mo and 44 at. % Re on lithium niobate on insulator substrates at room temperature. We investigated the spectral and temporal performance of MoRe SNSPDs as well as the detection regimes of one and multiple photons. The fabricated detector with a nanowire width of about 150 nm shows an internal detection efficiency of approximately 98% and 73.5% for the most crucial wavelengths for integration on the chip, 780 and 1550 nm, respectively. Our results show great potential for the use of MoRe for scalable and cryogenic tunable quantum photonic integrated circuits.
Abstract We demonstrate the integration of amorphous tungsten silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors on titanium in-diffused lithium niobate waveguides. We show proof-of-principle detection of evanescently coupled photons of 1550 nm wavelength using bidirectional waveguide coupling for two orthogonal polarization directions. We investigate the internal detection efficiency as well as detector absorption using coupling-independent characterization measurements. Furthermore, we describe strategies to improve the yield and efficiency of these devices.
Superconducting single-photon detectors (SNSPDs or SSPDs) based on superconducting nanowires offer single photon sensitivity at telecom wavelengths coupled with free running operation, high timing resolution and low dark counts. Amorphous superconducting materials open the pathway to improved yield and integration in advanced photonic applications. We report simulation, fabrication and experimental validation of waveguide integrated molybdenum silicide (MoSi) SNSPDs for scalable integration in quantum photonic circuits.
Here, we demonstrate waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors on thin-film lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN). Using a 250 μm-long NbN superconducting nanowire lithographically defined on top of a 125 μm-long LN nanowaveguide, an on-chip detection efficiency of 46% is realized with simultaneous high performance in dark count rates and timing jitter. As LN possesses high χ(2) second-order nonlinear and electro-optic properties, an efficient single-photon detector on thin-film LN opens up the possibility to construct a small-scale fully integrated quantum photonic chip, which includes single-photon sources, filters, tunable quantum gates, and detectors.