Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with 98% system detection efficiency at 1550 nm

By D. Reddy, Robert Nerem, Sae Woo Nam, R. Mirin, V. Verma. Optica, 2020

273 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are an enabling technology for myriad quantum-optics experiments that require high-efficiency detection, large count rates, and precise timing resolution. The system detection efficiencies (SDEs) for fiber-coupled SNSPDs have fallen short of theoretical predictions of near unity by at least 7%, with the discrepancy being attributed to scattering, material absorption, and other SNSPD dynamics. We optimize the design and fabrication of an all-dielectric layered stack and fiber coupling package in order to achieve 98.0±0.5% SDE, measured for single-mode-fiber guided photons derived from a highly attenuated 1550 nm continuous-wave laser. This enforces a smaller bound on the scattering and absorption losses in such systems and opens the use of SNSPDs for scenarios that demand high-SDE for throughput and fidelity.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/19717393201a5ce1d261717521397d168771c282