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Polarization independent superconducting nanowire detector with high-detection efficiency

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Abstract

The superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) draws much attention because of its attractive performance at ultra violet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, and it can be widespread in quantum information technologies. However, how to increase the absorption which can dramatically increase the quantum efficiency of the SNSPD is still a top research issue. In this study, the effect of incident medium and cavity material on the optical absorptance of cavity-integrated SNSPDs was systematically investigated using finite-element method. The simulation results demonstrate that for photons polarized parallel to nanowire orientation, even though the maximum absorptance of the nanowire is insensitive to cavity material, it does increase when the refractive index of incident medium decreases. For perpendicularly polarized photons, both incident medium and cavity material play significant roles, and the absorptance curves get closer to the parallel case as the refractive index of cavity material increases. Based on these results, two cavity-integrated SNSPDs with front-illumination structure which can enhance the absorptance for both parallel and perpendicular photons are proposed. Finally, a design to realize polarization-independent SNSPDs with high absorptance is presented.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the China State Key Program for Basic Research (No. 2011CBA00304), Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (No. 2010Z01010), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61106121 and 61174084). The authors thank Qiang Zhou, Hu Zhao, Hao Li, Qing-Ya Zhang, Gang Li, Geng-Fang He, and Qi-Chun Liu for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, Beijing, 100084, China

    He-Yu Yin, Han Cai, Ri-Sheng Cheng, Zheng Xu, Zhen-Nan Jiang, Jian-She Liu, Tie-Fu Li & Wei Chen

  2. Department of Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    He-Yu Yin, Han Cai, Ri-Sheng Cheng, Zheng Xu, Zhen-Nan Jiang, Jian-She Liu, Tie-Fu Li & Wei Chen

  3. Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    He-Yu Yin, Han Cai, Ri-Sheng Cheng, Zheng Xu, Zhen-Nan Jiang, Jian-She Liu, Tie-Fu Li & Wei Chen

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  1. He-Yu Yin
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  2. Han Cai
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  3. Ri-Sheng Cheng
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Correspondence to Wei Chen.

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Yin, HY., Cai, H., Cheng, RS. et al. Polarization independent superconducting nanowire detector with high-detection efficiency. Rare Met. 34, 71–76 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-014-0298-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-014-0298-z

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