On-chip detection of non-classical light by scalable integration of single-photon detectors
Open accessAbstract
Photonic-integrated circuits have emerged as a scalable platform for complex quantum systems. A central goal is to integrate single-photon detectors to reduce optical losses, latency and wiring complexity associated with off-chip detectors. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are particularly attractive because of high detection efficiency, sub-50-ps jitter and nanosecond-scale reset time. However, while single detectors have been incorporated into individual waveguides, the system detection efficiency of multiple SNSPDs in one photonic circuit-required for scalable quantum photonic circuits-has been limited to <0.2%. Here we introduce a micrometer-scale flip-chip process that enables scalable integration of SNSPDs on a range of photonic circuits. Ten low-jitter detectors are integrated on one circuit with 100% device yield. With an average system detection efficiency beyond 10%, and estimated on-chip detection efficiency of 14-52% for four detectors operated simultaneously, we demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first on-chip photon correlation measurements of non-classical light.
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Due to its simplicity and lack of tunable elements, this approach to quantum measurement is uniquely suited to integration with on-chip superconducting single-photon detectors for a fully on-chip tomography scheme.
“Due to its simplicity and lack of tunable elements, this approach to quantum measurement is uniquely suited to integration with on-chip super-conducting single-photon detectors 37 for a fully on-chip tomography scheme.”
From Scalable on-chip quantum state tomography (2018) · cites this paper as [37]
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“via pick-and-place approaches [204] or by photonic circuit fabrication on top of pre-selected nanowire devices [205].”
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- Authors
- Najafi, F., Mower, J., Harris, N. C., Bellei, F., Dane, A., Lee, C., Hu, X., Kharel, P., Marsili, F., Assefa, S., Berggren, K. K., & Englund, D.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- IBM (United States) (US)
- Corresponding author
- Englund, Dirk
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2015-01-09
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 5873-5873
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4354051
- OpenAlex
- W2115213492
- Cited by
- 330
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 19.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1128222, DGE-1069420)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (W911NF-10-1-0416)
- Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (FA9550-14-1-0052)
- Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (1128222)
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-, FA9550-14-1-0052)
- Army Research Office (W911NF, FA9550-14-1-0052)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Photonic and Optical Devices
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Quantum Information and Cryptography
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Superconducting and THz Device Technology
- Keywords
- superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, flip-chip integration, photonic integrated circuits, nonclassical light, quantum photonic circuits
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