Microwave engineering in superconducting nanowires for single-photon detection
Name
1142634562-MIT.pdf
Size
52.75 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
bf309f3b921a19956c78393c5eb360c8
Author(s)
Zhu, Di,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Advisor(s)
Karl K. Berggren.
Date Issued
2019
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Detecting light at the single-photon level plays a crucial role in photonic quantum information processing, deep-space optical communication, astronomical observation, and biological and chemical sensing. With their exceptional performance, superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as the leading single-photon counting technology at infrared wavelengths. Conventionally, the superconducting nanowires are treated as lumped circuit elements, and their microwave properties were largely neglected. In this thesis, we engineer the nanowires into kinetic-inductive transmission lines and use them to devise new single-photon detector architectures. Through impedance engineering, we developed a superconducting tapered nanowire detector that has increased output voltage, reduced timing jitter, and most importantly, the ability to resolve photon numbers. Utilizing the slow propagation speed of electrical signals in the nanowire transmission lines, we developed a delay-line-multiplexed detector array. This two-terminal array can perform coincidence counting over a large number of spatial modes and can be scalably integrated on photonic waveguides.
Description
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2019
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 149-163).
Subjects
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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