Jitter analysis of a superconducting nanowire single photon detector

You, Lixing; Yang, Xiaoyan; He, Yabai; Zhang, Wenxing; Liu, Dengkuan; Zhang, Weijun; Zhang, Lu; Zhang, Ling; Liu, Xiaoyu; Chen, Sijing; Wang, Zhen; Xie, Xiaoming

doi:10.1063/1.4817581

Cited by 120 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Photomultiplier tubes and singlephoton avalanche diodes have sub-1-ns timing jitter in the visible domain, but their detection performance deteriorates in the infrared, and scaling these technologies to large spatial arrays is challenging 1 . Improved timing performance of sub-20-ps timing jitter 14 and sub-10-ns recovery time 15 is possible with superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs), which also have been demonstrated to have near-unity detection efficiency 2 , less than 1 dark-count per second (cps) 16 , a wide spectral response from the visible to infrared 17 and greater than 100 cps counting rate 18 . However, attempts to create arrays of SNSPDs have had limited success [3][4][5][6][7][8] .…”

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-photon imager based on a superconducting nanowire delay line

et al. 2017

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Detecting spatial and temporal information of individual photons by using singlephoton-detector (SPD) arrays is critical to applications in spectroscopy, communication, biological imaging, astronomical observation, and quantum-information processing. Among the current SPDs 1 , detectors based on superconducting nanowires have outstanding performance 2 , but are limited in their ability to be integrated into large scale arrays due to the engineering difficulty of high-bandwidth cryogenic electronic readout [3][4][5][6][7][8] . Here, we address this problem by demonstrating a scalable single-photon imager using a single continuous photon-sensitive superconducting nanowire microwave-plasmon transmission line. By appropriately designing the nanowire's local electromagnetic environment so that the nanowire guides microwave plasmons, the propagating voltages signals generated by a photon-detection event were slowed down to ~ 2% of the speed of light. As a result, the time difference between arrivals of the signals at the two 2 ends of the nanowire naturally encoded the position and time of absorption of the photon. Thus, with only two readout lines, we demonstrated that a 19.7-mm-long nanowire meandered across an area of 286 μm × 193 μm was capable of resolving ~ 590 effective pixels while simultaneously recording the arrival times of photons with a temporal resolution of 50 ps. The nanowire imager presents a scalable approach to realizing high-resolution photon imaging in time and space. Main Text:Quantum and classical optics are currently limited by our ability to efficiently sense and process information about single photons. For example, to enhance the information-carrying capacity of a quantum channel 9 and improve security in quantum key distribution 10,11 , information is typically encoded in the position and arrival time of individual photons.Determining the spatial and temporal information of photons is currently accomplished by single-photon detector (SPD) arrays. Among existing SPD array technologies, the transition edge sensor (TES) and the microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) provide moderate spectral information but less impressive temporal resolution (e.g., the timing jitter is measured in nanoseconds for TESs 12 and microseconds for MKIDs 13 ). Photomultiplier tubes and singlephoton avalanche diodes have sub-1-ns timing jitter in the visible domain, but their detection performance deteriorates in the infrared, and scaling these technologies to large spatial arrays is challenging 1 . Improved timing performance of sub-20-ps timing jitter 14 and sub-10-ns recovery time 15 is possible with superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs), which also have been demonstrated to have near-unity detection efficiency 2 , less than 1 dark-count per second (cps) 16 , a wide spectral response from the visible to infrared 17 and greater than 100 cps 3 counting rate 18 . However, attempts to create arrays of SNSPDs have had limited success 3-8 .Traditional row-column rectangular pixel arra...

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Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-photon imager based on a superconducting nanowire delay line

et al. 2017

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“…A higher bias current corresponds to a larger cut-off wavelength or a lower minimum photon energy E min [23] and also a smaller jitter [24]. The limit for I b is an experimentally measured I c which in turn cannot exceed the depairing critical current I c,dep .…”

Section: Stationary State Of Snspdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection mechanism of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

Engel¹,

Renema²,

Ilin³

et al. 2015

Supercond. Sci. Technol.

149

111

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Abstract. In this paper we intend to give a comprehensive description of the current understanding of the detection mechanism in superconducting nanowire singlephoton detectors. We will review key experimental results related to the detection mechanism, e.g. the variations of the detection probability as a function of bias current, temperature or magnetic field. Commonly used detection models will be introduced and we will analyze their predictions in view of the experimental observations. Although none of the proposed detection models is able to describe all experimental data, it is becoming increasingly clear that vortices are essential for the formation of the initial normal-conducting domain that triggers a detection event.

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“…High-performance superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have been widely demonstrated as high-performance single-photon detector (SPD) in many fields such as quantum information, quantum optics, free space laser communication and light detection and ranging [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The false detection events or dark count rate (DCR), which represents the noise level of the SNSPD, is one of the key parameters for practical applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Superconducting nanowire single photon detector with on-chip bandpass filter

Xiao-yan

Zhang

et al. 2014

Opt. Express

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Dark count rate is one of the key parameters limiting the performance of the superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD). We have designed a multi-layer film bandpass filter that can be integrated onto the SNSPD to suppress the dark counts contributed by the stray light and blackbody radiation of the fiber. The bandpass filter is composed of 16 SiO2/Si bilayers deposited onto the backside of a thermally oxidized Si substrate. The substrate shows an excellent bandpass filter effect and provides a high transmittance of 88% at the central wavelength of the pass band, which is the same as that of the bare substrate. The SNSPDs fabricated on the substrate integrated with the bandpass filter show conspicuous wavelength-sensitive detection efficiency. The background dark count rate is reduced by two orders of magnitude to sub-Hz compared with the conventional SNSPD (a few tens of Hz). The detector exhibits a system detection efficiency of 56% at DCR of 1 Hz, with the measured minimal noise equivalent power reaching 2.

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Jitter analysis of a superconducting nanowire single photon detector

Cited by 120 publications

References 10 publications

Single-photon imager based on a superconducting nanowire delay line

Single-photon imager based on a superconducting nanowire delay line

Detection mechanism of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

Superconducting nanowire single photon detector with on-chip bandpass filter

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