Free-space-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors for infrared optical communications

被引：51

作者：

Bellei, Francesco ^{[1
]}

Cartwright, Alyssa P. ^{[1
]}

McCaughan, Adam N. ^{[1
]}

Dane, Andrew E. ^{[1
]}

Najafi, Faraz ^{[1
]}

Zhao, Qingyuan ^{[1
]}

Berggren, Karl K. ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] MIT, Dept Elect Engn & Comp Sci, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02319 USA

来源：

OPTICS EXPRESS | 2016年 / 24卷 / 04期

关键词：

SYSTEM;

D O I：

10.1364/OE.24.003248

中图分类号：

O43 [光学];

学科分类号：

070207 ; 0803 ;

摘要：

This paper describes the construction of a cryostat and an optical system with a free-space coupling efficiency of 56.5% +/- 3.4% to a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector ( SNSPD) for infrared quantum communication and spectrum analysis. A 1K pot decreases the base temperature to T = 1.7 K from the 2.9 K reached by the cold head cooled by a pulse-tube cryocooler. The minimum spot size coupled to the detector chip was 6.6 +/- 0.11 mu m starting from a fiber source at wavelength,. = 1.55 mu m. We demonstrated photon counting on a detector with an 8 x 7.3 mu m(2) area. We measured a dark count rate of 95 +/- 3.35 kcps and a system detection efficiency of 1.64% +/- 0.13%. We explain the key steps that are required to improve further the coupling efficiency. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America

引用

页码：3248 / 3257

页数：10