Superconducting wide strip photon detector with high critical current bank structure

Abstract

The single-photon detector is an essential technology in photonic quantum information science and technology. Large-scale photonic quantum computers and quantum networks inevitably require numerous high-performance single-photon detectors. Superconducting nanostrip single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) using around 100-nm-wide nanostrips are promising technologies with high detection efficiency, low dark count, and low jitter, but there has been room for evolution in terms of polarization dependence and productivity. Using wide strips with widths of tens of micrometers provides polarization-independent high detection efficiency and high-yield fabrication using high-throughput photolithography with submicron resolution. However, detecting photons with such wide strips has been challenging due to rapidly increasing intrinsic dark counts caused by the uneven distribution of the superconducting current in the strip. Here, we present a novel superconducting wide strip photon detector (SWSPD) with a high critical current bank (HCCB) structure. This new strip structure suppresses the intrinsic dark counts and provides highly efficient photon detection in the wide strips. We have simultaneously achieved a polarization-independent detection efficiency of over 78% for 1550-nm wavelength photons, a low dark count rate (DCR) of ∼80 cps, and a low jitter of 29.8 ps using a 20-µm-wide SWSPD with the HCCB structure. This result paves the way for a new class of photon detectors using ultra-wide superconducting strips. These photon detectors with excellent productivity and polarization-independent high detection performances would boost the advance of large-scale photonic quantum technologies.