Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detector With Efficiency Over 60&#x0025; for 2-<italic>&#x03BC;</italic>m-Wavelength

Hui Zhou; Yiming Pan; Lixing You; Hao Li; Yong Wang; Yan Tang; Heqing Wang; Xiaoyu Liu; Zhen Wang

doi:10.1109/JPHOT.2019.2956755

IEEE Photonics Journal (Jan 2019)

Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detector With Efficiency Over 60% for 2-<italic>μ</italic>m-Wavelength

Hui Zhou,
Yiming Pan,
Lixing You,
Hao Li,
Yong Wang,
Yan Tang,
Heqing Wang,
Xiaoyu Liu,
Zhen Wang

Affiliations

Hui Zhou: ORCiD; State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Yiming Pan: State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Lixing You: ORCiD; State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Hao Li: ORCiD; State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Yong Wang: State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Yan Tang: State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Heqing Wang: ORCiD; State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Xiaoyu Liu: ORCiD; State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Zhen Wang: State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOT.2019.2956755
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 11, no. 6
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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We demonstrate superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) for the wavelength at around 2 μm. The linewidth of the NbN nanowire is squeezed to 56 nm to increase the intrinsic response efficiencies at longer wavelengths such as 2 μm. Serially connecting avalanche architecture is applied to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the response signal. Further, the optical cavity is optimized to improve the absorption of the device. A silica single-mode fiber is adopted to introduce photons to the SNSPD at a temperature of 2.25 K using a Gifford-McMahon cryocooler. The SNSPD exhibits detection efficiencies of 58%, 67%, and 63% at wavelengths of 1550, 1700, and 2000 nm, respectively, with dark count rate of ~12 kcps, which is reduced to 2 cps when the attached fiber pigtail is all placed inside the 40-K cryostat. The detection efficiency at 2000 nm is 2.5 times greater than that of the best previously developed detector with an efficiency of 25%. Our SNSPD is promising for practical applications in molecular science and earth meteorology.

Published in IEEE Photonics Journal

ISSN: 1943-0655 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General): Applied optics. Photonics; Science: Physics: Optics. Light
Website: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=4563994

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