Nanowire single-photon detector with an integrated optical cavity and anti-reflection coating

Compactly packaged superconducting nanowire single-photon detector with an optical cavity for multichannel system.

We developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with an optical cavity (OC-SNSPDs) for multichannel systems. For efficient coupling, the devices were installed in compact fiber-coupled packages after their substrate thickness was reduced from 400 to 45 microm. The measured detection efficiency (DE) measurement at different substrate thicknesses and the estimation of optical coupli...

Enhancing Detection Efficiency by Applying an Optical Cavity Structure in a Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector

We report on the enhancement of system detection efficiency in a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) by applying the optical cavity structure. The nanowire was made using 4nm-thick NbN thin films and covered with an SiO cavity and Au mirror designed for 1300–1600 nm wavelengths. The device is mounted into fibercoupled packages, and installed in a practical multichannel syste...

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors integrated with optical nano-antennae.

Optical nano-antennae have been integrated with semiconductor lasers to intensify light at the nanoscale and photodiodes to enhance photocurrent. In quantum optics, plasmonic metal structures have been used to enhance nonclassical light emission from single quantum dots. Absorption and detection of single photons from free space could also be enhanced by nanometallic antennae, but this has not ...

Superconducting-nanowire single-photon-detector linear array

1.25-Gbit/s photon-counting optical communications using a two- element superconducting nanowire single photon detector

The sensitivity of a high-rate photon-counting optical communications link depends on the performance of the photon counter used to detect the optical signal. In this paper, we focus on ways to reduce the effect of blocking, which is loss due to time periods in which the photon counter is inactive following a preceding detection event. This blocking loss can be reduced by using an array of phot...