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Register a new userImprove photon number discrimination for a superconducting series nanowire detector by applying a digital matched filter
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Photon number resolving (PNR) is an important capacity for detectors working in quantum and classical applications. Although a conventional superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) is not a PNR detector, by arranging nanowires in a series array and multiplexing photons over space, such series PNR-SNSPD can gain quasi-PNR capacity. However, the accuracy and maximum resolved photon number are both limited by the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio of the output pulses. Here, we introduce a matched filter, which is an optimal filter in terms of SNR for SNSPD pulses. Experimentally, compared to conventional readout using a room-temperature amplifier, the normalized spacing between pulse amplitudes from adjacent photon number detections increased by a maximum factor of 2.1 after the matched filter. Combining with a cryogenic amplifier to increase SNR further, such spacing increased by a maximum factor of 5.3. In contrast to a low pass filter, the matched filter gave better SNRs while maintaining good timing jitters. Minimum timing jitter of 55 ps was obtained experimentally. Our results suggest that the matched filter is a useful tool for improving the performance of the series PNR-SNSPD and the maximum resolved photon number can be expected to reach 65 or even large.
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We experimentally demonstrate that a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector is deterministically controllable by bright illumination. We found that bright light can temporarily make a large fraction of the nanowire length normally-conductive, can extend deadtime after a normal photon detection, and can cause a hotspot formation during the deadtime with a highly nonlinear sensitivity. In result, although based on different physics, the superconducting detector turns out to be controllable by virtually the same techniques as avalanche photodiode detectors. As demonstrated earlier, when such detectors are used in a quantum key distribution system, this allows an eavesdropper to launch a detector control attack to capture the full secret key without being revealed by to many errors in the key.
We present a new photon number resolving detector (PNR), the Parallel Nanowire Detector (PND), which uses spatial multiplexing on a subwavelength scale to provide a single electrical output proportional to the photon number. The basic structure of the PND is the parallel connection of several NbN superconducting nanowires (100 nm-wide, few nm-thick), folded in a meander pattern. Electrical and optical equivalents of the device were developed in order to gain insight on its working principle. PNDs were fabricated on 3-4 nm thick NbN films grown on sapphire (substrate temperature TS=900C) or MgO (TS=400C) substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering in an Ar/N2 gas mixture. The device performance was characterized in terms of speed and sensitivity. The photoresponse shows a full width at half maximum (FWHM) as low as 660ps. PNDs showed counting performance at 80 MHz repetition rate. Building the histograms of the photoresponse peak, no multiplication noise buildup is observable and a one photon quantum efficiency can be estimated to be QE=3% (at 700 nm wavelength and 4.2 K temperature). The PND significantly outperforms existing PNR detectors in terms of simplicity, sensitivity, speed, and multiplication noise.
The optical-to-electrical conversion, which is the basis of optical detectors, can be linear or nonlinear. When high sensitivities are needed single-photon detectors (SPDs) are used, which operate in a strongly nonlinear mode, their response being independent of the photon number. Nevertheless, photon-number resolving (PNR) detectors are needed, particularly in quantum optics, where n-photon states are routinely produced. In quantum communication, the PNR functionality is key to many protocols for establishing, swapping and measuring entanglement, and can be used to detect photon-number-splitting attacks. A linear detector with single-photon sensitivity can also be used for measuring a temporal waveform at extremely low light levels, e.g. in long-distance optical communications, fluorescence spectroscopy, optical time-domain reflectometry. We demonstrate here a PNR detector based on parallel superconducting nanowires and capable of counting up to 4 photons at telecommunication wavelengths, with ultralow dark count rate and high counting frequency.
Conventional readout of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) sets an upper bound on the output voltage to be the product of the bias current and the load impedance, $I_mathrm{B}times Z_mathrm{load}$, where $Z_mathrm{load}$ is limited to 50 $Omega$ in standard r.f. electronics. Here, we break this limit by interfacing the 50 $Omega$ load and the SNSPD using an integrated superconducting transmission line taper. The taper is a transformer that effectively loads the SNSPD with high impedance without latching. It increases the amplitude of the detector output while preserving the fast rising edge. Using a taper with a starting width of 500 nm, we experimentally observed a 3.6$times$ higher pulse amplitude, 3.7$times$ faster slew rate, and 25.1 ps smaller timing jitter. The results match our numerical simulation, which incorporates both the hotspot dynamics in the SNSPD and the distributed nature in the transmission line taper. The taper studied here may become a useful tool to interface high-impedance superconducting nanowire devices to conventional low-impedance circuits.
Superconducting nanostrip photon detectors have been used as single photon detectors, which can discriminate only photons presence or absence. It has recently been found that they can discriminate the number of photons by analyzing the output signal waveform, and they are expected to be used in various fields, especially in optical quantum information processing. Here, we improve the photon-number-resolving performance for light with a high-average photon number by pattern matching of the output signal waveform. Furthermore, we estimate the positive-operator-valued measure of the detector by a quantum detector tomography. The result shows that the device has photon-number-resolving performance up to five photons without any multiplexing or arraying, indicating that it is useful as a photon-number-resolving detector.
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