Impedance-Matched Differential Superconducting Nanowire Detectors

Abstract

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are the highest-performing photon-counting technology in the near-infrared region. Because of delay-line effects, large-area SNSPDs typically trade off timing resolution and detection efficiency. This unavoidable fundamental constraint might limit their future deployment in demanding scientific applications. Here we introduce a detector design based on transmission-line engineering and differential readout for device-level signal conditioning, enabling a high system detection efficiency and a low detector jitter simultaneously. To make our differential detectors compatible with single-ended time taggers, we also engineer analog differential-to-single-ended readout electronics, with minimal impact on the system timing resolution. Our best niobium nitride differential SNSPD achieves a system detection efficiency of (83.3±4.3)% at 1550nm and (78±5)% at 775nm. The lowest system jitter is 13.0±0.4ps at 1550nm and 9.7±0.4ps at 775nm, limited by intrinsic contributions. These detectors also achieve sub-100-ps timing response at 1/100 of the maximum level, 30.7±0.4ps at 775 nm and 47.6±0.4ps at 1550nm, enabling time-correlated single-photon counting with high-dynamic-range response functions. Furthermore, because of the differential impedance-matched design, our detectors exhibit delay-line imaging capabilities and photon-number resolution. The properties and high-performance metrics achieved by our system make it a versatile photon-detection solution for quantum computing, quantum communication, and many other scientific applications.8 MoreReceived 16 December 2021Revised 7 February 2023Accepted 20 March 2023DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.044093© 2023 American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasOptoelectronicsPhysical SystemsLow-temperature superconductorsNanowiresOptical sources & detectorsSuperconducting devicesTechniquesInfrared techniquesPhoton countingSingle-photon detectorsQuantum InformationCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsAtomic, Molecular & Optical