Open Access
2 February 2024 Large-inductance superconducting microstrip photon detector enabling 10 photon-number resolution
Ling-Dong Kong, Tian-Zhu Zhang, Xiao-Yu Liu, Hao Li, Zhen Wang, Xiao-Ming Xie, Li-Xing You
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Efficient and precise photon-number-resolving detectors are essential for optical quantum information science. Despite this, very few detectors have been able to distinguish photon numbers with both high fidelity and a large dynamic range, all while maintaining high speed and high timing precision. Superconducting nanostrip-based detectors excel at counting single photons efficiently and rapidly, but face challenges in balancing dynamic range and fidelity. Here, we have pioneered the demonstration of 10 true photon-number resolution using a superconducting microstrip detector, with readout fidelity reaching an impressive 98% and 90% for 4-photon and 6-photon events, respectively. Furthermore, our proposed dual-channel timing setup drastically reduces the amount of data acquisition by 3 orders of magnitude, allowing for real-time photon-number readout. We then demonstrate the utility of our scheme by implementing a quantum random-number generator based on sampling the parity of a coherent state, which guarantees inherent unbiasedness, robustness against experimental imperfections and environmental noise, as well as invulnerability to eavesdropping. Our solution boasts high fidelity, a large dynamic range, and real-time characterization for photon-number resolution and simplicity with respect to device structure, fabrication, and readout, which may provide a promising avenue towards optical quantum information science.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE and CLP under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Ling-Dong Kong, Tian-Zhu Zhang, Xiao-Yu Liu, Hao Li, Zhen Wang, Xiao-Ming Xie, and Li-Xing You "Large-inductance superconducting microstrip photon detector enabling 10 photon-number resolution," Advanced Photonics 6(1), 016004 (2 February 2024). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.AP.6.1.016004
Received: 15 August 2023; Accepted: 3 January 2024; Published: 2 February 2024
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CITATIONS
Cited by 5 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Photodetectors

Quantum reading

Superconductors

Single photon detectors

Signal to noise ratio

Quantum numbers

Sensors

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