High-speed detection of 1550 nm single photons with superconducting nanowire detectors
Abstract
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors are a key technology for quantum information and science due to their high efficiency, low timing jitter, and low dark counts. In this work, we present a detector for single 1550 nm photons with up to 78% detection efficiency, timing jitter below 50 ps FWHM, 158 counts/s dark count rate, as well as a maximum count rate of 1.5 giga-counts/s at 3 dB compression. The PEACOQ detector (Performance-Enhanced Array for Counting Optical Quanta) comprises a linear array of 32 straight superconducting niobium nitride nanowires that span the mode of an optical fiber. This design supports high count rates with minimal penalties for detection efficiency and timing jitter. We show how these trade-offs can be mitigated by implementing independent readout for each nanowire and by using a temporal walk correction technique to reduce count-rate dependent timing jitter. These detectors make quantum communication practical on a 10 GHz clock.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 26, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.1364/optica.478960
Entities
People
- Andrew D Beyer
- Andrew Mueller
- Boris Korzh
- Bruce Bumble
- Emma Wollman
- Ioana Craiciu
- Jason P. Allmaras
- Lautaro Narváez
- Maria Spiropulu
- Matthew D. Shaw
- Thomas Lehner
Organizations
- California Institute of Technology
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration