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Quantum Computing, Communication, and Simulation

Integrating superconducting single-photon detectors into active photonic circuits

Samuel Gyger, Max Tao, Marco Colangelo, Ian Christen, Hugo Larocque, Julian Zichi, Lucas Schweickert, Ali W. Elshaari, Stephan Steinhauer, Saimon Filipe Covre da Silva, Armando Rastelli, Hamed Sattari, Grégory Choong, Yves Pétremand, Iván Prieto, Yang Yu, Amir Hossein Ghadimi, Dirk Englund, Klaus D. Jöns, Val Zwiller, Carlos Errando-Herranz

Published Mar 12, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Large-scale quantum photonics requires the integration of several elements on the same chip, including quantum emitters and memories, active photonics, and single-photon detectors. In this talk, I will report on i) our recent work integrating superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD) with mechanically reconfigurable integrated photonics, and ii) our recently developed method for integration of SNSPDs onto arbitrary photonic substrates.

DOI
10.1117/12.3009736

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Large-scale quantum photonics requires the integration of several elements on the same chip, including quantum emitters and memories, active photonics, and single-photon detectors. In this talk, I will report on i) our recent work integrating superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD) with mechanically reconfigurable integrated photonics, and ii) our recently developed method for integration of SNSPDs onto arbitrary photonic substrates.
Abstract Integrated photonics is expected to play a key role in the scalability of quantum systems for applications such as quantum computing, quantum communications, quantum internet, and quantum metrology. One of the primary components of quantum integrated photonics is a single photon detector, which reads out the quantum information encoded in photons. Amongst available single-photon detection schemes, superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) remain the most promising technology for effective on-chip coupling, because they can be seamlessly integrated with a wide range of waveguide materials and substrates and have shown unparalleled performance from visible to the mid-infrared regime. Here, we review different aspects of SNSPDs and schemes for their on-chip integration for different integrated photonics applications. Although mostly concentrated on quantum applications, we also cover some of the important wider photonics applications including imaging, AI and machine learning, and single-photon spectroscopy, and conclude the review with a future outlook discussing emerging research areas enabled by photonic integrated circuits based on SNSPDs.
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.
The realization of large-scale photonic circuit for quantum optics experiments at telecom wavelengths requires an increasing number of integrated detectors. Superconductive nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) can be easily integrated on chip and they can efficiently detect the light propagating inside waveguides. The thermal budget of cryostats poses a limit on the maximum number of elements that can be integrated on the same chip due to the thermal impact of the readout electronics. In this paper, we propose and implement a novel scheme able for an efficient reading of several SNSPDs with only one readout port, enabling the realization of photonic circuits with a large number of modes.