High-performance eight-channel system with fractal superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors
Zifan Hao,
Kai Zou,
Yun Meng,
Jun-Yong Yan,
Fangyuan Li,
Yongheng Huo,
Chao-Yuan Jin,
Feng Liu,
Thomas Descamps,
Adrian Iovan,
Val Zwiller,
Xiaolong Hu
Affiliations
Zifan Hao
School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronic Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China
Kai Zou
School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronic Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China
Yun Meng
School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronic Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China
Jun-Yong Yan
State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 300072, China
Fangyuan Li
State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 300072, China
Yongheng Huo
Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Chao-Yuan Jin
State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 300072, China
Feng Liu
State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 300072, China
Thomas Descamps
Department of Applied Physics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Adrian Iovan
Department of Applied Physics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Val Zwiller
Department of Applied Physics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Xiaolong Hu
School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronic Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China; Corresponding author.
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have become a mainstream photon-counting technology that has been widely applied in various scenarios. So far, most multi-channel SNSPD systems, either reported in literature or commercially available, are polarization sensitive, that is, the system detection efficiency (SDE) of each channel is dependent on the state of polarization of the to-be-detected photons. Here, we reported an eight-channel system with fractal SNSPDs working in the wavelength range of 930 to 940 nm, which are all featured with low polarization sensitivity. In a close-cycled Gifford-McMahon cryocooler system with the base temperature of 2.2 K, we installed and compared the performance of two types of devices: (1) SNSPD, composed of a single, continuous nanowire and (2) superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetector (SNAP), composed of 16 cascaded units of two nanowires electrically connected in parallel. The highest SDE among the eight channels reaches 96−5+4%, with the polarization sensitivity of 1.02 and a dark-count rate of 13 counts per second. The average SDE for eight channels for all states of polarization is estimated to be 90 ± 5%. It is concluded that both the SNSPDs and the SNAPs can reach saturated, high SDE at the wavelength of interest, and the SNSPDs show lower dark-count (false-count) rates, whereas the SNAPs show better properties in the time domain. With the adoption of this system, we showcased the measurements of the second-order photon-correlation functions of light emission from a single-photon source based on a semiconductor quantum dot and from a pulsed laser. It is believed that this work will provide new choices of systems with single-photon detectors combining the merits of high SDE, low polarization sensitivity, and low noise that can be tailored for different applications.
