title: Gated mode superconducting nanowire single photon detectors.
abstract: Single Photon Detectors are fundamental to quantum optics and quantum information. Superconducting nanowire detectors exhibit high performance in free-running mode, but have a limited maximum count rate. By exploiting a bistable superconducting nanowire system, we demonstrate the first gated-mode operation of these detectors for a large active area single element device at 625MHz, one order of magnitude faster than its free-running counterpart. We show the maximum count rate in gated-mode operation can be pushed to GHz range without a compromise on the active area or quantum efficiency, while reducing the dark count rate.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Quantum Computing and ECE Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Mohsen K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Akhlaghi
authors.forename: A Hamed
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Majedi
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D053770:Nanowires; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D017785:Photons; D011789:Quantum Theory