Potential of a Superconducting Photon Counter for Heterodyne Detection at Telecommunication Wavelength
arXiv:1609.02033 · doi:10.1364/OE.24.030474
Abstract
Here, we report on successful operation of a NbN thin film superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) in a coherent mode (as a mixer) at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm. Providing the Local Oscillator power of the order of a few picowatts, we were practically able to reach the quantum noise limited sensitivity. The intermediate frequency gain bandwidth was limited by the spectral band of single-photon response pulse of the detector, which is proportional to the detector size. We observed gain bandwidth of 65 MHz and 140 MHz for 7x7 um^2 and 3x3 um^2 devices respectively. Tiny amount of the required Local Oscillator power and wide gain and noise bandwidths along with the needless of any Low Noise Amplification opens possibility for a photon counting heterodyne-born megapixel array development.
arXiv commentThe paper contains 10 pages, 4 figures, and is now under review for Optics Express
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