This paper presents an ultrafast niobium nitride (NbN) superconducting single-photon detector (SSPD) with an active area of 3×3 μm2 that offers better timing performance metrics than the previous SSPD with an active area of 7×7 μm2. The improved SSPD demonstrates a record timing jitter (<25 ps), an ultrashort recovery time (<2 ns), an extremely low dark count rate, and a high detection efficiency in a wide spectral range from visible part to near infrared. The record parameters were obtained due to the development of a new technique providing effective optical coupling between a detector with a reduced active area and a standard single-mode telecommunication fiber. The advantages of the new approach are experimentally confirmed by taking electro-optical measurements.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Superconductors, Ultrafast phenomena, Single photon detectors, Active sensors, Inductance, Picosecond phenomena, Active optics, Single mode fibers, Beam splitters
We present an ultrafast NbN Superconducting single-photon detector (SSPD) with active area of 3x3 μm2, which reveals better timing performances than a previously developed SSPD with active area of 10x10 μm2. The improved SSPD demonstrates the record timing jitter <25 ps, ultra short recovery time <2 ns, extremely low dark counts level, and high detection efficiency (DE) in a wide spectral range from visible to near-infrared. The record parameters were obtained thanks to the development of a new technique of an effective optical coupling between a detector with reduced-size active area and a standard single-mode telecommunication fiber. The advantages of a new approach are experimentally confirmed by performed electro-optical measurements of the device performances.
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