Abstract
Optical nano-antennae have been integrated with semiconductor lasers to intensify light at the nanoscale and photodiodes to enhance photocurrent. In quantum optics, plasmonic metal structures have been used to enhance nonclassical light emission from single quantum dots. Absorption and detection of single photons from free space could also be enhanced by nanometallic antennae, but this has not previously been demonstrated. Here, we use nano-optical transmission effects in a one-dimensional gold structure, combined with optical cavity resonance, to form optical nano-antennae, which are further used to couple single photons from free space into a 80-nm-wide superconducting nanowire. This antenna-assisted coupling enables a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector with 47% device efficiency at the wavelength of 1550 nm and 9-μm-by-9-μm active area while maintaining a reset time of only 5 ns. We demonstrate nanoscale antenna-like structures to achieve exceptional efficiency and speed in single-photon detection.
Highlights
Applications, such as long-distance quantum key distribution (QKD) [1, 2, 3], photon-counting classical optical communication [4], infrared photonic entanglement distribution [5], and characterization of the photon statistics of light sources [6], require efficient and fast photon counters that operate at infrared wavelengths
Optical nano-antennae have been integrated with semiconductor lasers to intensify light at the nanoscale and photodiodes to enhance photocurrent
Absorption and detection of single photons from free space could be enhanced by nanometallic antennae, but this has not previously been demonstrated
Summary
Applications, such as long-distance quantum key distribution (QKD) [1, 2, 3], photon-counting classical optical communication [4], infrared photonic entanglement distribution [5], and characterization of the photon statistics of light sources [6], require efficient and fast photon counters that operate at infrared wavelengths. These devices are critical enabling components in integrated quantum-information-processing systems. We elaborate the concept of nano-antennae integration and the mechanism of absorption enhancement, explain the fabrication process in detail, present the characterization of the fabricated devices, and compare the performance of the antenna-integrated SNSPDs with the performance of previously reported devices
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