Coupling light to superconductive photon counters

Abstract

Superconductive nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are an emerging, ultrasensitive photon counting technology which may enable fiber-based, long-haul quantum key distribution. Our group has successfully developed a robust process to fabricate SNSPDs, and has demonstrated device-detection-efficiency above 50% at near infrared wavelengths. However, one remaining challenge must be taken - efficiently coupling light into the detector. This step is difficult because of the small active area of the SNSPD and its low temperature operation. In this thesis, I have designed two experimental setups to couple the light from fiber to the detector at a cryogenic temperature of 4 K: one is for immersion device-testing in a dewar; another is for packaging the detector inside a cryocooler. In addition, I have designed and fabricated SNSPDs suitable for the coupling with single-mode fiber, based on my theoretical calculation of the system detection-efficiency. Some important parameters to characterize the detectors such as system-detection-efficiency, dark-count rate, and counting rate vs. optical input power have been measured.