Characterisation of multi-pixel superconducting nanowire single photon detectors

Single-photon detection is extremely important for a number of different applications such as quantum cryptography, CMOS testing and even biomedical research. Most of the applications of single-photon detector require high efficiency combined with high time resolution, high count rates and low dark counts. Superconducting nanowire single-photon...

Design of broadband high-efficiency superconducting-nanowire single photon detectors

In this paper several designs to maximize the absorption efficiency of superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors are investigated. Using a simple optical cavity consisting of a gold mirror and a SiO₂ layer, the absorption efficiency can be boosted to over 97%: this result is confirmed experimentally by the realization of an...