Single-photon Detectors on Arbitrary Photonic Substrates
Max Tao, Hugo Larocque, Samuel Gyger, Marco Colangelo, Owen Medeiros, Ian Christen, Hamed Sattari, Gregory Choong, Yves Petremand, Ivan Prieto, Yang Yu, Stephan Steinhauer, Gerald L. Leake, Daniel J. Coleman, Amir H. Ghadimi, Michael L. Fanto, Val Zwiller, Dirk Englund, Carlos Errando-Herranz
Detecting non-classical light is a central requirement for photonics-based quantum technologies. Unrivaled high efficiencies and low dark counts have positioned superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) as the leading detector technology for fiber and integrated photonic applications. However, a central challenge lies in their integration within photonic integrated circuits regardless of material platform or surface topography. Here, we introduce a method based on transfer printing that overcomes these constraints and allows for the integration of SNSPDs onto arbitrary photonic substrates. We prove this by integrating SNSPDs and showing through-waveguide single-photon detection in commercially manufactured silicon and lithium niobate on insulator integrated photonic circuits. Our method eliminates bottlenecks to the integration of high-quality single-photon detectors, turning them into a versatile and accessible building block for scalable quantum information processing.
CQN Authors
Dirk Englund
CQN Co-Deputy Director, Associate Professor of EECS
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science