Waveguide superconducting single-photon detectors for integrated quantum photonic circuits
J. P. Sprengers, Alessandro Gaggero, Dondu Sahin, S. Jahanmirinejad, G. Frucci, F. Mattioli, Roberto Leoni, Johannes Beetz, M. Lermer, Martin Kamp, Sven Höfling, Rosendo Sanjinés, Andrea Fiore · Applied Physics Letters · 2011
The monolithic integration of single-photon sources, passive optical circuits, and single-photon detectors enables complex and scalable quantum photonic integrated circuits, for application in linear-optics quantum computing and quantum communications. Here, we demonstrate a key component of such a circuit, a waveguide single-photon detector. Our detectors, based on superconducting nanowires on GaAs ridge waveguides, provide high efficiency (∼20%) at telecom wavelengths, high timing accuracy (∼60 ps), and response time in the ns range and are fully compatible with the integration of single-photon sources, passive networks, and modulators.