No Arabic abstract
In this work, we present a novel device that is a combination of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector and a superconducting multi-level memory. We show that these devices can be used to count the number of detections through single-photon to single-flux conversion. Electrical characterization of the memory properties demonstrates single-flux quantum (SFQ) separated states. Optical measurements using attenuated laser pulses with different mean photon number, pulse energies and repetition rates are shown to differentiate single-photon detection from other possible phenomena, such as multi-photon detection and thermal activation. Finally, different geometries and material stacks to improve device performance, as well as arraying methods are discussed.
We show several techniques for using integrated-photonic waveguide structures to simultaneously characterize multiple waveguide-integrated superconducting-nanowire detectors with a single fiber input. The first set of structures allows direct comparison of detector performance of waveguide-integrated detectors with various widths and lengths. The second type of demonstrated integrated-photonic structure allows us to achieve detection with a high dynamic range. This device allows a small number of detectors to count photons across many orders of magnitude in count rate. However, we find a stray light floor of -30 dB limits the dynamic range to three orders of magnitude. To assess the utility of the detectors for use in synapses in spiking neural systems, we measured the response with average incident photon numbers ranging from less than $10^{-3}$ to greater than $10$. The detector response is identical across this entire range, indicating that synaptic responses based on these detectors will be independent of the number of incident photons in a communication pulse. Such a binary response is ideal for communication in neural systems. We further demonstrate that the response has a linear dependence of output current pulse height on bias current with up to a factor of 1.7 tunability in pulse height. Throughout the work, we compare room-temperature measurements to cryogenic measurements. The agreement indicates room-temperature measurements can be used to determine important properties of the detectors.
We present a gated silicon single photon detector based on a commercially available avalanche photodiode. Our detector achieves a photon detection efficiency of 45pm5% at 808 nm with 2x 10^-6 dark count per ns at -30V of excess bias and -30{deg}C. We compare gated and free-running detectors and show that this mode of operation has significant advantages in two representative experimental scenarios: detecting a single photon either hidden in faint continuous light or after a strong pulse. We also explore, at different temperatures and incident light intensities, the charge persistence effect, whereby a detector clicks some time after having been illuminated.
There are several applications which require high position resolution UV imaging. For these applications we have developed and successfully tested a new version of a 2D UV single photon imaging detector based on a microgap RPC. The main features of such a detectors is the high position resolution - 30 micron in digital form and the high quantum efficiency (1-8% in the spectral interval of 220-140 nm). Additionally, they are spark- protected and can operate without any feedback problems at high gains, close to a streamer mode. In attempts to extend the sensitivity of RPCs to longer wavelengths we have successfully tested the operation of the first sealed parallel-plate gaseous detectors with CsTe photocathodes. Finally, the comparison with other types of photosensitive detectors is given and possible fields of applications are identified.
The superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) is a quantum-limit superconducting optical detector based on the Cooper-pair breaking effect by a single photon, which exhibits a higher detection efficiency, lower dark count rate, higher counting rate, and lower timing jitter when compared with those exhibited by its counterparts. SNSPDs have been extensively applied in quantum information processing, including quantum key distribution and optical quantum computation. In this review, we present the requirements of single-photon detectors from quantum information, as well as the principle, key metrics, latest performance issues and other issues associated with SNSPD. The representative applications of SNSPDs with respect to quantum information will also be covered.
Because of their universal nature, Fano fluctuations are expected to influence the response of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs). We predict that photon counting rate ($PCR$) as a function of bias current ($I_B$) in SNSPDs is described by an integral over a transverse coordinate-dependent complementary error function. The latter describes smearing of local responses due to Fano fluctuations of the amount of energy deposited into electronic system. The finite width, $sigma$, of the $PCR$ vs $I_B$ arises from fluctuations in the energy partition between quasiparticles and phonons during the energy down-conversion cascade. In narrow-nanowire SNSPDs the local responses are uniform, and the effect of Fano-fluctuations on $sigma$ is dominant. In wide-nanowire SNSPDs with strong coordinate dependence of local responses due to vortex-antivortex unbinding and vortex entry from edges, Fano-fluctuations smear singularities imprinted by vorticity on the transition part of $PCR$ curve. We demonstrate good agreement between theory and experiments for a series of bath temperatures and photon energies in narrow-wire WSi SNSPDs. The time-resolved hotspot relaxation curves predicted by Fano fluctuations match the Lorentzian shapes observed in experiments over the whole range of bias currents investigated except for their tails.