A single photon detection system for visible and infrared spectrum range

TL;DR

This paper presents a superconducting single-photon detection system using niobium nitride that operates across visible to infrared wavelengths, demonstrating high efficiency and signal-to-noise ratio in real-world photon correlation experiments.

Contribution

The work introduces a superconducting detector capable of sensitive photon detection from 452 nm to 2300 nm, with high efficiency and noise performance, suitable for practical quantum optics applications.

Findings

Signal-to-noise ratio of 4×10^4 achieved

Detection efficiency of 64% at 1550 nm

Detection efficiency of 15% at 2300 nm

Abstract

We demonstrate niobium nitride based superconducting single-photon detectors sensitive in the spectral range 452 nm - 2300 nm. The system performance was tested in a real-life experiment with correlated photons generated by means of spontaneous parametric down conversion, where one of photon was in the visible range and the other was in the infrared range. We measured a signal to noise ratio as high as $4\times 10^4$ in our detection setting. A photon detection efficiency as high as 64% at 1550 nm and 15% at 2300 nm was observed.