Kerman, A. J., Dauler, E. A., Yang, J. K. W., Rosfjord, K. M., Anant, V., Berggren, K. K., et al. (2007). Constriction-limited detection efficiency of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. Appl. Phys. Lett., 90(10), 101110 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We investigate the source of the large variations in the observed detection efficiencies of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors between many nominally identical devices. Through both electrical and optical measurements, we infer that these variations arise from “constrictions:” highly localized regions of the nanowires where the effective cross-sectional area for superconducting current is reduced. These constrictions limit the bias-current density to well below its critical value over the remainder of the wire, and thus prevent the detection efficiency from reaching the high values that occur in these devices when they are biased near the critical current density.
This work is sponsored by the United States Air Force under Contract No. FA8721-05-C-0002.
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Słysz, W., Węgrzecki, M., Bar, J., Grabiec, P., Górska, M., Zwiller, V., et al. (2006). Fiber-coupled single-photon detectors based on NbN superconducting nanostructures for practical quantum cryptography and photon-correlation studies. Appl. Phys. Lett., 88(26), 261113 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We have fabricated and tested a two-channel single-photon detector system based on two fiber-coupled superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs). Our best device reached the system quantum efficiency of 0.3% in the 1540-nm telecommunication wavelength with a fiber-to-detector coupling factor of about 30%. The photoresponse consisted of 2.5-ns-wide voltage pulses with a rise time of 250ps and timing jitter below 40ps. The overall system response time, measured as a second-order, photon cross-correlation function, was below 400ps. Our SSPDs operate at 4.2K inside a liquid-helium Dewar, but their optical fiber inputs and electrical outputs are at room temperature. Our two-channel detector system should find applications in practical quantum cryptography and in antibunching-type quantum correlation measurements.
The authors would like to thank Dr. Marc Currie for his assistance in early time-resolved photoresponse measurements and Professor Atac Imamoglu for his support. This work was supported by the Polish Ministry of Science under Project No. 3 T11B 052 26 (Warsaw), RFBR 03-02-17697 and INTAS 03-51-4145 grants (Moscow), CRDF Grant No. RE2-2531-MO-03 (Moscow), RE2-2529-MO-03 (Moscow and Rochester), and US AFOSR FA9550-04-1-0123 (Rochester). Additional funding was provided by the grants from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and BBN Technologies Corp.
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Kerman, A. J., Dauler, E. A., Keicher, W. E., Yang, J. K. W., Berggren, K. K., Gol’tsman, G., et al. (2006). Kinetic-inductance-limited reset time of superconducting nanowire photon counters. Appl. Phys. Lett., 88(11), 111116 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We investigate the recovery of superconducting NbN-nanowire photon counters after detection of an optical pulse at a wavelength of 1550nm, and present a model that quantitatively accounts for our observations. The reset time is found to be limited by the large kinetic inductance of these nanowires, which forces a tradeoff between counting rate and either detection efficiency or active area. Devices of usable size and high detection efficiency are found to have reset times orders of magnitude longer than their intrinsic photoresponse time.
The authors acknowledge D. Oates and W. Oliver (MIT Lincoln Laboratory), S.W. Nam, A. Miller, and R. Hadfield (NIST) and R. Sobolewski, A. Pearlman, and A. Verevkin (University of Rochester) for helpful discussions and technical assistance. This work made use of MIT’s shared scanning-electron-beam-lithography facility in the Research Laboratory of Electronics. This work is sponsored by the United States Air Force under Air Force Contract No. FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, recommendations and conclusions are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.
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Gol’tsman, G. N., Okunev, O., Chulkova, G., Lipatov, A., Semenov, A., Smirnov, K., et al. (2001). Picosecond superconducting single-photon optical detector. Appl. Phys. Lett., 79(6), 705–707.
Abstract: We experimentally demonstrate a supercurrent-assisted, hotspot-formation mechanism for ultrafast detection and counting of visible and infrared photons. A photon-induced hotspot leads to a temporary formation of a resistive barrier across the superconducting sensor strip and results in an easily measurable voltage pulse. Subsequent hotspot healing in ∼30 ps time frame, restores the superconductivity (zero-voltage state), and the detector is ready to register another photon. Our device consists of an ultrathin, very narrow NbN strip, maintained at 4.2 K and current-biased close to the critical current. It exhibits an experimentally measured quantum efficiency of ∼20% for 0.81 μm wavelength photons and negligible dark counts.
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Shcherbatenko, M., Elezov, M., Manova, N., Sedykh, K., Korneev, A., Korneeva, Y., et al. (2021). Single-pixel camera with a large-area microstrip superconducting single photon detector on a multimode fiber. Appl. Phys. Lett., 118(18), 181103.
Abstract: High sensitivity imaging at the level of single photons is an invaluable tool in many areas, ranging from microscopy to astronomy. However, development of single-photon sensitive detectors with high spatial resolution is very non-trivial. Here we employ the single-pixel imaging approach and demonstrate a proof-of-principle single-pixel single-photon imaging setup. We overcome the problem of low light gathering efficiency by developing a large-area microstrip superconducting single photon detector coupled to a multi-mode optical fiber interface. We show that the setup operates well in the visible and near infrared spectrum, and is able to capture images at the single-photon level.
We thank Philipp Zolotov and Pavel Morozov for NbN film fabrication, ARC coating, and fiber coupling of the detector. We also thank Swabian Instruments GmbH and Dr. Helmut Fedder personally for the kindly provided experimental equipment (Time Tagger Ultra 8). The work in the part of SNSPD research and development was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research Project No. 18-29-20100. The work in the part of the optical setup and imaging was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research Project No. 20-32-51004.
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Lindgren, M., Currie, M., Zeng, W. - S., Sobolewski, R., Cherednichenko, S., Voronov, B., et al. (1998). Picosecond response of a superconducting hot-electron NbN photodetector. Appl. Supercond., 6(7-9), 423–428.
Abstract: The ps optical response of ultrathin NbN photodetectors has been studied by electro-optic sampling. The detectors were fabricated by patterning ultrathin (3.5 nm thick) NbN films deposited on sapphire by reactive magnetron sputtering into either a 5×10 μm2 microbridge or 25 1 μm wide, 5 μm long strips connected in parallel. Both structures were placed at the center of a 4 mm long coplanar waveguide covered with Ti/Au. The photoresponse was studied at temperatures ranging from 2.15 K to 10 K, with the samples biased in the resistive (switched) state and illuminated with 100 fs wide laser pulses at 395 nm wavelength. At T=2.15 K, we obtained an approximately 100 ps wide transient, which corresponds to a NbN detector response time of 45 ps. The photoresponse can be attributed to the nonequilibrium electron heating effect, where the incident radiation increases the temperature of the electron subsystem, while the phonons act as the heat sink. The high-speed response of NbN devices makes them an excellent choice for an optoelectronic interface for superconducting digital circuits, as well as mixers for the terahertz regime. The multiple-strip detector showed a linear dependence on input optical power and a responsivity =3.9 V/W.
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Kahl, O., Ferrari, S., Kovalyuk, V., Vetter, A., Lewes-Malandrakis, G., Nebel, C., et al. (2016). Spectrally resolved single-photon imaging with hybrid superconducting – nanophotonic circuits. arXiv:1609.07857v1 [physics.ins-det].
Abstract: The detection of individual photons is an inherently binary mechanism, revealing either their absence or presence while concealing their spectral information. For multi-color imaging techniques, such as single photon spectroscopy, fluorescence resonance energy transfer microscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, wavelength discrimination is essential and mandates spectral separation prior to detection. Here, we adopt an approach borrowed from quantum photonic integration to realize a compact and scalable waveguide-integrated single-photon spectrometer capable of parallel detection on multiple wavelength channels, with temporal resolution below 50 ps and dark count rates below 10 Hz. We demonstrate multi-detector devices for telecommunication and visible wavelengths and showcase their performance by imaging silicon vacancy color centers in diamond nanoclusters. The fully integrated hybrid superconducting-nanophotonic circuits enable simultaneous spectroscopy and lifetime mapping for correlative imaging and provide the ingredients for quantum wavelength division multiplexing on a chip.
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Xu, Y., Zheng, X., Williams, C., Verevkin, A., Sobolewski, R., Chulkova, G., et al. (2001). Ultrafast superconducting hot-electron single-photon detector. In CLEO (345).
Abstract: Summary form only given. The current most-pressing need is to develop a practical, GHz-range counting single-photon detector, operational at either 1.3-/spl mu/m or 1.55-/spl mu/m radiation wavelength, for novel quantum communication and quantum cryptography systems. The presented solution of the problem is to use an ultrafast hot-electron photodetector, based on superconducting thin-film microstructures. This type of device is very promising, due to the macroscopic quantum nature of superconductors. Very fast response time and the small, (meV range) value of the superconducting energy gap characterize the superconductor, leading to the efficient avalanche process even for infrared photons.
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Minaeva, O., Divochiy, A., Korneev, A., Sergienko, A. V., & Goltsman, G. N. (2009). High speed infrared photon counting with photon number resolving superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs). In CLEO/Europe – EQEC.
Abstract: A review of development and characterization of the nanostructures consisting of several meander sections, all connected in parallel was presented. Such geometry leads to a significant decrease of the kinetic inductance, without a decrease of the SSPD active area. A new type of SSPDs possess the QE of large-active- area devices, but, simultaneously, allows achieving short response times and the GHz-counting rate. This new generation of superconducting detectors has another significant advantage for quantum key distribution, they have a photon number resolving capability and can distinguish more photons.
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Zinoni, C., Alloing, B., Li, L. H., Marsili, F., Fiore, A., Lunghi, L., et al. (2007). Single-photonics at telecom wavelengths using nanowire superconducting single photon detectors. In CLEO/QELS (QTuF6 (1 to 2)). Optical Society of America.
Abstract: Novel single-photon detectors based on NbN superconducting nanostructures promise orders-of- magnitude improvement over InGaAs APDs. We demonstrate this improved performance for the first time by measuring the g(2)(τ) on single photon states produced by a quantum dot at telecom wavelength.
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Rosfjord, K. M., Yang, J. K. W., Dauler, E. A., Anant, V., Berggren, K. K., Kerman, A. J., et al. (2006). Increased detection efficiencies of nanowire single-photon detectors by integration of an optical cavity and anti-reflection coating. In CLEO/QELS (JTuF2 (1 to 2)).
Abstract: We fabricate and test superconducting NbN-nanowire single-photon detectors with an integrated optical cavity and anti-reflection coating. We design the cavity and coating such as to maximize absorption in the NbN film of the detector.
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Zhang, J., Boiadjieva, N., Chulkova, G., Deslandes, H., Gol'tsman, G. N., Korneev, A., et al. (2003). Noninvasive CMOS circuit testing with NbN superconducting single-photon detectors. Electron. Lett., 39(14), 1086–1088.
Abstract: The 3.5 nm thick-film, meander-structured NbN superconducting single-photon detectors have been implemented in the CMOS circuit-testing system based on the detection of near-infrared photon emission from switching transistors and have significantly improved the performance of the system. Photon emissions from both p- and n-MOS transistors have been observed.
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Korneev, A., Kovalyuk, V., An, P., Golikov, A., Zubkova, E., Ferrari, S., et al. (2018). Superconducting single-photon detector for integrated waveguide spectrometer. In EPJ Web Conf. (Vol. 190, 04009).
Abstract: We present our recent achievements in the development of an on-chip spectrometer consisting of arrayed waveguide grating made of Si3N4 waveguides and NbN superconducting single-photon detector.
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Elezov, M., Scherbatenko, M., Sych, D., Goltsman, G., Arakelyan, S., Evlyukhin, A., et al. (2019). Towards the fiber-optic Kennedy quantum receiver. In EPJ Web Conf. (Vol. 220, 03011 (1 to 2)).
Abstract: We consider practical aspects of using standard fiber-optic elements and superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors for the development of a practical quantum receiver based on the Kennedy scheme. Our receiver allows to discriminate two phase-modulated coherent states of light at a wavelength of 1.5 microns in continuous mode with bit rate 200 Kbit/s and error rate about two times below the standard quantum limit.
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Goltsman, G., Naumov, A. V., Gladush, M. G., & Karimullin, K. R. (2018). Quantum photonic integrated circuits with waveguide integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. In EPJ Web Conf. (Vol. 190, 02004 (1 to 2)).
Abstract: We show the design, a history of development as well as the most successful and promising approaches for QPICs realization based on hybrid nanophotonic-superconducting devices, where one of the key elements of such a circuit is a waveguide integrated superconducting single-photon detector (WSSPD). The potential of integration with fluorescent molecules is discussed also.
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