Technological head start in the field of single photon detection

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors already come with a very high detection efficiency, an excellent timing resolution and a sub Hz dark count rate. What an SNSPD does not normally offer is broadband usability, the ability to pack several photonics circuits at one chip and count rates up to 2 GHz as well as jitter below 30 ps. Fortunately, all of this can be achieved when waveguide-integrating SNSPD – as we do at Pixel Photonics.

Why waveguide-integration

With the combination of a nanophotonic waveguide with an SNSPD, we exploit the particular strong absorption of light inside the superconducting nanowire. The efficiency of a normal single photon detector is determined by the thickness of the superconducting thin film and the deposited end mirrors. As waveguide-integration maximizes the interaction length of the detector through its traveling wave geometry, we get a photon absorption of nearly 100 % at any given wavelength.

Impressions_Chip_Fabrication_Pixel_Photonics_Lab_Muenster

Getting a grip on packaging

Crucial points for high overall system detection efficiencies in single photon detection are, of course, electronic wire bonding and photonic fiber-to-chip coupling. In both areas, we are eagerly working on maximizing the performance of our single photon detector systems, with the goal of achieving overall efficiencies above 90 % in the near future. We give high priority to research in these fields in our daily doing as we are striving to be in the vanguard of SNSPD research within all areas.

Trust is good, in-house development is better

Since not only the single photon detector itself but the whole system is highly relevant for performance, we have chosen to develop cryogenic and electronic solutions for the SNSPD systems ourselves. Hence, we use the advantages of waveguide-integration, embed, if requested, up to 128 detectors in a single chip and thanks to in-house fabrication always ensure that electronics remain low noise.

 

The result is super efficient, extremely broadband, ultra-low noise and very fast.

Find out more about our detector systems

Dive deep

Get more insights about what’s behind our approach and have a look at our academic publications. 

Our publications

 

Learn about key terms and concepts behind single photon detection in our SNSPD glossary.

Glossary