Superconducting nanowire single-photon detector has near-unity detection efficiency

Karlsruhe, Germany--A single-photon detector that combines near-unity detection efficiency with high timing resolution and a very low error rate has been created by researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Yale University, Boston University, and Moscow State Pedagogical University.¹ The group achieved this by integrating superconducting nanowire detectors on top of nanophotonic waveguides to greatly increase the absorption length for incoming photons.

The single-photon detection efficiency reaches up to 91% at a 1550 nm wavelength, a number that was consistent across several fabricated chips. The new design also provides ultrashort timing jitter of 18 ps. Such qualities, along with a dark-count rate as low as 50 Hz, make this integrated detector a prime candidate for optical data transmission and quantum computation.

The fabrication method makes it possible to integrate several hundreds of these detectors on a single chip (a basic precondition for future use in optical quantum computers). The same detector architecture could also be used for wavelengths in the range of visible light.

REFERENCE:

1. W. H. P. Pernice et al., Nature Communications, (27 December 2012), doi:10.1038/ncomms2307