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Nanophotonics

Cryogenic Dielectric Metasurface‐Integrated Superconducting Nanowire Single‐Photon Detectors

Amir Targholizadeh, Grigoriy Y. Nikulin, Pankaj Kumar Jha

Published Jun 28, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, multielement superconducting nanowire single‐photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as the leading single‐photon detection technology due to their exceptional system detection efficiency (SDE), ultrahigh timing precision, and negligible dark counts. However, achieving these performances with a single‐element SNSPD has been an outstanding challenge due to a fundamental trade‐off: A large active area is necessary for high SDE, whereas a smaller area is crucial for higher photon count rates, lower dark counts, and lower jitter. Here, we introduce a dielectric cryogenic metalens integrated with a single‐element SNSPD to achieve high SDE with a smaller active area. We report a 77‐fold enhancement in the SDE of a metalensed SNSPD with a 5 m 5 m active area, compared with an identical reference SNSPD without a metalens, using a moderately sized 60 m 60 m metalens. Next, we theoretically demonstrate polarization‐resolved photodetection at the telecommunication wavelength using a bifunctional metalens. We achieve a cross‐detection probability of 2 between metalensed SNSPDs spaced at 10 m under illumination with x ‐ and y ‐polarized light. Integrating a multifunctional cryogenic metasurface with the state‐of‐the‐art SNSPDs may enable novel capabilities with reduced size, weight, power, cost, and cooling (SWaP‐) requirements.

DOI
10.1002/nap2.70172

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Applied Optics•Oct 14, 2019•10 citations
ABSTRACT Over the past decade, multielement superconducting nanowire single‐photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as the leading single‐photon detection technology due to their exceptional system detection efficiency (SDE), ultrahigh timing precision, and negligible dark counts. However, achieving these performances with a single‐element SNSPD has been an outstanding challenge due to a fundamental trade‐off: A large active area is necessary for high SDE, whereas a smaller area is crucial for higher photon count rates, lower dark counts, and lower jitter. Here, we introduce a dielectric cryogenic metalens integrated with a single‐element SNSPD to achieve high SDE with a smaller active area. We report a 77‐fold enhancement in the SDE of a metalensed SNSPD with a 5 m 5 m active area, compared with an identical reference SNSPD without a metalens, using a moderately sized 60 m 60 m metalens. Next, we theoretically demonstrate polarization‐resolved photodetection at the telecommunication wavelength using a bifunctional metalens. We achieve a cross‐detection probability of 2 between metalensed SNSPDs spaced at 10 m under illumination with x ‐ and y ‐polarized light. Integrating a multifunctional cryogenic metasurface with the state‐of‐the‐art SNSPDs may enable novel capabilities with reduced size, weight, power, cost, and cooling (SWaP‐) requirements.
Over the past decade, multi-element superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as the leading single-photon detection technology due to their exceptional system detection efficiency (SDE), ultrahigh timing precision, negligible dark counts, etc. However, achieving these performances with a \textit{single-element} SNSPD has been an outstanding challenge due to a fundamental trade-off: a large active area is necessary for high SDE, while a smaller area is crucial for higher photon count rates, lower dark counts, and lower jitter. Here, we introduce an all-dielectric cryogenic metalens integrated with a single-element SNSPD to achieve high SDE with a smaller active area. Furthermore, we leverage a bifunctional metalens to demonstrate polarization-resolved photodetection at the telecommunication wavelength theoretically. Integrating multifunctional cryogenic metaurfaces with the state-of-the-art SNSPDs may enable novel capabilities with reduced size, weight, power, cost, and cooling (SWaP-C2^{2}2) requirements.
Superconducting detectors capable of registering single light quanta - single photons - are highly sought after in a host of emerging 21st century technologies [1]. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs or SSPDs) [2] operating in the telecommunication wavelength range outperform conventional semiconductor detectors in the following metrics: dark count rate, system detection efficiency (SDE), photon counting rate and timing jitter [3, 4, 5, 6]. SNSPDs have been deployed in many important emerging photon-counting applications including single photon LiDAR [7, 8], quantum key distribution [9, 10], optical quantum computing [11], life sciences [12, 13], fibre sensing [14, 15], exoplanet spectroscopy [16] and free space optical communication [17].
ABSTRACT The scaling of photonic quantum technologies, including quantum networks and optical quantum computing, necessitates high‐fidelity and massively parallel single‐photon detection. While superconducting nanowire single‐photon detectors (SNSPDs) provide state‐of‐the‐art performance, their large‐scale deployment is often hindered by stringent cryogenic requirements and integration complexity. In this work, we present a parallel architecture designed to overcome the scalability bottlenecks. Experimentally, we demonstrate the largest SNSPD system to date, comprising 100 channels operating stably below 2.1 K within a compact Gifford‐McMahon cryocooler. All channels exhibit exceptional performance, achieving system detection efficiencies (SDE) between 80.1% and 98.3%, with dark count rates (DCR) maintained below 300 cps. Furthermore, leveraging this parallel capability, we demonstrate a fully connected multi‐user quantum entanglement distribution network. This work establishes a robust and scalable infrastructure, paving the way for large‐scale quantum photonic applications.
Multimode fiber (MMF)-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are critical for free-space quantum communication and sensing, yet their performance is severely limited by polarization-dependent detection efficiency and high dark count rate (DCR) arising from thermal photons. Here, we present a transformative solution that addresses both challenges simultaneously. We demonstrate a polarization-insensitive SNSPD based on a dielectric-compensated bilayer nanowire structure, achieving a system detection efficiency (SDE) of 88% at 1.5 μm with a DCR of ∼4.8×10 4 cps for MMF-coupled signals. To mitigate the elevated thermal noise inherent to multimode coupling, we integrate a compact, dual-stage on-fiber filter with a suppression ratio exceeding 60 dB. The packaged device delivers an SDE of 81% with a DCR of only 4 cps, corresponding to an over 11,000-fold SNR enhancement relative to the unfiltered MMF-coupled configuration.
Generally, a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) is composed of wires with a typical width of ∼ 100 nm . Recent studies have found that superconducting strips with a micrometer-scale width can also detect single photons. Compared with the SNSPD covering the same area, the superconducting microstrip single-photon detector (SMSPD) has smaller kinetic inductance, higher working current, and lower requirements in fabrication accuracy, providing potential applications in the development of ultralarge active area detectors. However, the study of SMSPD is still in its infancy, and the realization of its high-performance and practical use remains an open question. This study demonstrates a NbN SMSPD with a nearly saturated system detection efficiency (SDE) of ∼ 92.2 % at a dark count rate of ∼ 200 cps , a polarization sensitivity of ∼ 1.03 , and a minimum timing jitter of ∼ 48 ps at the telecom wavelength of 1550 nm when coupled with a single-mode fiber and operated at 0.84 K. Furthermore, the detector’s SDE is over 70% when operated at a 2.1 K closed-cycle cryocooler.
In this work, we report a large-active-area multispectral superconducting nanowire single-photon detector for free-space applications. The detector is realized by fabricating NbTiN nanowire with an active area of 35 µm diameter on two serially connected dielectric mirrors that can simultaneously and efficiently detect single photons at the three typical wavelengths employed in free-space applications, namely, 532, 850, and 1064 nm. Maximal system detection efficiencies (SDEs) of 80.0% at 532 nm and 850 nm and 75.8% at 1064 nm are achieved for polarized light obtained by coupling the detector with an SMF-28 fiber. Upon coupling with a 50 µm multimode fiber, SDEs of 68.6%, 59.6%, and 47.0%, are achieved for 532, 850, and 1064 nm wavelength unpolarized light, respectively. Moreover, the detector shows timing jitters of 37.1 and 41.0 ps when coupled with SMF-28 fiber and 50 µm multimode fiber. This type of detector with a large active area and multiwavelength detection capability is promising for both single and multiwavelength free-space applications.