Fast and Continuous Detection of Single Microwave Photons via Photo-assisted Quasiparticle Tunneling to a Superconducting Island
arXiv:2511.17470 · doi:10.1103/mj91-ntm4
Abstract
We demonstrate a single-photon detector operating in the microwave domain, based on photo-assisted quasiparticle tunneling events that poison a superconducting island. The detection relies on continuously monitoring the island's charge parity using microwave reflectometry. This scheme achieves 10\% detection efficiency with sub \SI{50}{\ns} time resolution and short dead time ($\sim \SI{1}{\us}$), for microwave photons at \SI{10}{\GHz}. The detector features three junctions connected to a superconducting island, which together carry out photoelectric conversion and charge readout. The enhanced light--matter coupling, crucial to photon to quasiparticle conversion, is provided by a granular aluminum-based high-impedance microwave resonator. The time resolved detection of itinerant microwave photon opens up new perspectives in quantum sensing, microwave quantum optics and mesoscopic physics.
5 pages, 4 figures + supplementary informations
References in corpus (16)
- Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics
- Measurements of the Correlation Function of a Microwave Frequency Single Photon Source
- Colloquium: Quantum heat transport in condensed matter systems
- Fast electron thermometry towards ultra-sensitive calorimetric detection
- Bolometer operating at the threshold for circuit quantum electrodynamics
- Microsecond resolution of quasiparticle tunneling in the single-Cooper-pair-transistor
- Time-domain measurements of quasiparticle tunneling rates in a single-Cooper-pair transistor
- Shot noise in a strange metal
- Microwave photon detection at parametric criticality
- Propagating Quantum Microwaves: Towards Applications in Communication and Sensing
- Non-equilibrium frequency-dependent noise through a quantum dot: A real time functional renormalization group approach
- Observation of thermal microwave photons with a Josephson junction detector
- Efficient Microwave Photon to Electron Conversion in a High Impedance Quantum Circuit
- Microwave photon-number amplification
- Continuous microwave photon counting by semiconductor-superconductor hybrids
- High-Efficiency Tunable Microwave Photon Detector Based on a Semiconductor Double Quantum Dot Coupled to a Superconducting High-Impedance Cavity