PT Journal
AU Sidorova, MV
   Divochiy, AV
   Vakhtomin, YB
   Smirnov, KV
TI Ultrafast superconducting single-photon detector with a reduced active area coupled to a tapered lensed single-mode fiber
SO J. Nanophoton.
PY 2015
BP 093051
VL 9
IS 1
DI 10.1117/1.JNP.9.093051
DE SSPD; SNSPD
AB This paper presents an ultrafast niobium nitride (NbN) superconducting single-photon detector (SSPD) with an active area of 3×3  μm2 that offers better timing performance metrics than the previous SSPD with an active area of 7×7  μm2. The improved SSPD demonstrates a record timing jitter (<25  ps), an ultrashort recovery time (<2  ns), an extremely low dark count rate, and a high detection efficiency in a wide spectral range from visible part to near infrared. The record parameters were obtained due to the development of a new technique providing effective optical coupling between a detector with a reduced active area and a standard single-mode telecommunication fiber. The advantages of the new approach are experimentally confirmed by taking electro-optical measurements.
ER