Yamashita, T., Miki, S., Qiu, W., Fujiwara, M., Sasaki, M., & Wang, Z. (2010). Temperature dependent performances of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors in an ultralow-temperature region. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 21(3), 336–339.
Abstract: We report on the performance of a fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) from 4 K down to the ultralow temperature of 16 mK for a 1550 nm wave length. The system detection efficiency (DE) increased with de creasing the temperature and reached the considerably high value of 15% with a dark count rate less than 100 cps below 1.5 K, even without an optical cavity structure. We also observed saturation of the system DE in its bias current dependency at 16 mK, which indicates that the device DE of our SNSPD nearly reached intrinsic DE despite the device having a large active area of 20 μm × 20 μm. The dark count was finite even at 16 mK and the black body radiation becomes its dominant origin in the low temperatures for fiber-coupled devices.
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Lydersen, L., Wiechers, C., Wittmann, C., Elser, D., Skaar, J., & Makarov, V. (2010). Hacking commercial quantum cryptography systems by tailored bright illumination. Nat. Photon., 4(10), 686–689.
Abstract: The peculiar properties of quantum mechanics allow two remote parties to communicate a private, secret key, which is protected from eavesdropping by the laws of physics. So-called quantum key distribution (QKD) implementations always rely on detectors to measure the relevant quantum property of single photons. Here we demonstrate experimentally that the detectors in two commercially available QKD systems can be fully remote-controlled using specially tailored bright illumination. This makes it possible to tracelessly acquire the full secret key; we propose an eavesdropping apparatus built of off-the-shelf components. The loophole is likely to be present in most QKD systems using avalanche photodiodes to detect single photons. We believe that our findings are crucial for strengthening the security of practical QKD, by identifying and patching technological deficiencies.
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Marsili, F., Najafi, F., Herder, C., & Berggren, K. K. (2011). Electrothermal simulation of superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors. Appl. Phys. Lett., 98(9), 3.
Abstract: We developed an electrothermal model of NbN superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors (SNAPs) on sapphire substrates. SNAPs are single-photon detectors consisting of the parallel connection of N superconducting nanowires. We extrapolated the physical constants of the model from experimental data and we simulated the time evolution of the device resistance, temperature and current by solving two coupled electrical and thermal differential equations describing the nanowires. The predictions of the model were in good quantitative agreement with the experimental results.
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Marsili, F., Najafi, F., Dauler, E., Bellei, F., Hu, X., Csete, M., et al. (2011). Single-photon detectors based on ultranarrow superconducting nanowires. Nano Lett., 11(5), 2048–2053.
Abstract: We report efficient single-photon detection (η = 20% at 1550 nm wavelength) with ultranarrow (20 and 30 nm wide) superconducting nanowires, which were shown to be more robust to constrictions and more responsive to 1550 nm wavelength photons than standard superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, based on 90 nm wide nanowires. We also improved our understanding of the physics of superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors, which we used to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of ultranarrow-nanowire detectors by a factor of 4, thus relaxing the requirements on the read-out circuitry and making the devices suitable for a broader range of applications.
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de Lange, G., Krieg, J. - M., Honingh, N., Karpov, A., & Cherednichenko, S. (2008). Performance of the HIFI flight mixers. In Proc. 19th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 98–105).
Abstract: We summarize the technology and final results of the superconducting heterodyne SIS and HEB mixers that are developed for the HIFI instrument. Within HIFI 7 frequency bands cover the frequency range from 480 GHz to 1910 GHz. We describe the different device technologies and optical coupling schemes that are used to cover the frequency bands. The efforts of the different mixer teams that participate in HIFI have contributed to an instrument that will have unprecedented sensitivity and frequency coverage.
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