Sub-ns time-gated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors
In this talk, we will present timed superconducting nanowire single photon detectors that enable ultrafast gating transitions. The latest approaches to increase efficiency and reduce jitter in 1550 nm devices will be shown.
Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors (SNSPDs) are well known for their
single-photon sensitivity, low jitter, and high efficiency. Their dynamic range is generally
limited either to zero or one (no photon, or a photon absorbed), and if single-photon
sensitivity is needed in the vicinity of a strong light pulse, a counteraction like gating needs
to be deployed. In such a scheme, we aim at the fastest possible transition time which is
helpful to increase sensitivity, to temporally filter any strong laser excitation, and further
suppress dark counts. Here, we present our work of time-gated SNSPDs where the
detection current can be switched on- and off to allow the detector not to be saturated.
We start our discussion by introducing the simplest gating scheme based on a square
wave resulting in switch-off-switching transition times of ≈50ns. Then we present a new
method to improve this relatively slow transition time to the sub-nanosecond range. Latest
measurements of efficiency recovery and jitter are presented for 1550 nm devices.
Presentation language: ENG
Speakers (1)
