Multi-Element Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector
Eric A. Dauler, Bryan S. Robinson, Andrew J. Kerman, Joel K. W. Yang, E.K.M. Rosfjord, Vikas Anant, B. Voronov, Gregory N Gol'tsman, Karl K. Berggren · IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity · 2007
A multi-element superconducting nanowire single photon detector (MESNSPD) is presented that consists of multiple independently-biased superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) elements that form a continuous active area. A two-element SNSPD has been fabricated and tested, showing no measurable crosstalk between the elements, sub-50-ps relative timing jitter, and four times the maximum counting rate of a single SNSPD with the same active area. The MESNSPD can have a larger active area and higher speed than a single-element SNSPD and the input optics can be designed so that the detector provides spatial, spectral or photon number resolution.