A compact 4 K cooling system for superconducting nanowire single photon detectors

Hills, M.; Bradshaw, T.; Dobrovolskiy, S.; Dorenbos, Sander N.; Gemmell, Nathan R.; Green, B.; Heath, Robert M.; Rawlings, T.; Tsimvrakidis, Konstantinos; Zwiller, Val; Crook, M.; Hadfield, Robert H.

doi:10.1088/1757-899x/502/1/012193

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Detection Efficiency. We assume the use of conventional Si-avalanche photo-diodes (APDs) with standard 40 % quantum efficiency (QE); this value is consistent with that of COTS devices, and this could be improved by using superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) but at greater expense and SWaP, albeit on the ground [67].…”

Section: Channel Lossesmentioning

confidence: 91%

QUARC: Quantum Research Cubesat—A Constellation for Quantum Communication

et al. 2020

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Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers future proof security based on fundamental laws of physics. Long-distance QKD spanning regions such as the United Kingdom (UK) may employ a constellation of satellites. Small satellites, CubeSats in particular, in low Earth orbit are a relatively low-cost alternative to traditional, large platforms. They allow the deployment of a large number of spacecrafts, ensuring greater coverage and mitigating some of the risk associated with availability due to cloud cover. We present our mission analysis showing how a constellation comprising 15 low-cost 6U CubeSats can be used to form a secure communication backbone for ground-based and metropolitan networks across the UK. We have estimated the monthly key rates at 43 sites across the UK, incorporating local meteorological data, atmospheric channel modelling and orbital parameters. We have optimized the constellation topology for rapid revisit and thus low-latency key distribution.

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Section: Channel Lossesmentioning

confidence: 91%

QUARC: Quantum Research Cubesat—A Constellation for Quantum Communication

et al. 2020

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“…In the past 5 years several international groups (UK, USA and China) have attempted to meet these requirements through proof-of-principle demonstrations [24][25][26][27], an example of which is displayed in figure 1. Each has a similar cryogenic architecture of a closed cycle regenerative cryocooler which pre-cools a Joule-Thomson Cryocooler (JTC) that provides the base temperature for the SNSPDs.…”

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confidence: 99%

Viewpoint: Compact cryogenics for superconducting photon detectors

Cooper

Hadfield

2022

Supercond. Sci. Technol.

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Superconducting detectors capable of registering single light quanta - single photons - are highly sought after in a host of emerging 21st century technologies [1]. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs or SSPDs) [2] operating in the telecommunication wavelength range outperform conventional semiconductor detectors in the following metrics: dark count rate, system detection efficiency (SDE), photon counting rate and timing jitter [3, 4, 5, 6]. SNSPDs have been deployed in many important emerging photon-counting applications including single photon LiDAR [7, 8], quantum key distribution [9, 10], optical quantum computing [11], life sciences [12, 13], fibre sensing [14, 15], exoplanet spectroscopy [16] and free space optical communication [17].

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