High-performance superconducting photon-number-resolving detectors with 86% system efficiency at telecom range
Maria Moshkova, Alexander V. Divochiy, Pavel Morozov, Yury B. Vakhtomin, A.V. Antipov, Philipp I. Zolotov, Vitaly Seleznev, Marat Ahmetov, Konstantin V. Smirnov · Journal of the Optical Society of America B · 2019
The use of improved fabrication technology, highly disordered NbN thin films, and intertwined section topology makes it possible to create high-performance photon-number-resolving superconducting single-photon detectors (PNR SSPDs) that are comparable to conventional single-element SSPDs at the telecom range. The developed four-section PNR SSPD has simultaneously an 86±3% system detection efficiency, 35 cps dark count rate, ∼2 ns dead time, and maximum 90 ps jitter. An investigation of the PNR SSPD’s detection efficiency for multiphoton events shows good uniformity across sections. As a result, such a PNR SSPD is a good candidate for retrieving the photon statistics for light sources and quantum key distribution systems.