Superconducting nanowire single-photon detection system and demonstration in quantum key distribution

We developed a superconducting nanowire single-photon detection (SNSPD) system based on Gifford-McMahon cryocooler for quantum communication applications. Environmental factors which may influence the system performance are intensively studied. Those factors include temperature fluctuations, the ambient magnetic field and the background radiation. By optimizing the bias circuit, the stability of SNSPD system to electrical noise and disturbance was effectively enhanced, thus making it more suitable for field application. A 4-channel SNSPD system with quantum efficiency higher than 4% at the dark count rate of 10 Hz for λ=1550 nm is integrated and applied into a quantum key distribution (QKD) experiment. QKD was successfully carried out over 100 km optical fiber with the final secure key rate of 1.6 kbps and the quantum bit error rate of less than 2%.

[1]  M. Sasaki,et al.  Temperature Dependent Performances of Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors in an Ultralow-Temperature Region , 2010, 1009.3981.

[2]  Aaron J. Miller,et al.  High‐Efficiency Photon‐Number‐Resolving Detectors based on Hafnium Transition‐Edge Sensors , 2009 .

[3]  Gilles Brassard,et al.  Quantum Cryptography , 2005, Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security.

[4]  Eric A. Dauler,et al.  Electrothermal feedback in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors , 2008, 0812.0290.

[5]  Mark W. Johnson,et al.  Nonequilibrium photon‐induced hotspot: A new mechanism for photodetection in ultrathin metallic films , 1996 .

[6]  Taro Itatani,et al.  Photon number resolving detection with high speed and high quantum efficiency , 2009 .

[7]  J. Chu,et al.  Attenuated total reflection GeO2 hollow waveguide for 9.6–11.7 μm infrared light transmission , 2011 .

[8]  P. Kouminov,et al.  Sensitivity and gigahertz counting performance of NbN superconducting single-photon detectors , 2004 .

[9]  Jian-Wei Pan,et al.  Decoy-state quantum key distribution with polarized photons over 200 km. , 2010, Optics express.

[10]  Germany,et al.  Fluctuation effects in superconducting nanostrips , 2004, cond-mat/0411033.

[11]  I. Milostnaya,et al.  Dark Counts in Nanostructured NbN Superconducting Single-Photon Detectors and Bridges , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity.

[12]  H. Terai,et al.  Origin of intrinsic dark count in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors , 2011, 1103.2844.

[13]  Z Wang,et al.  Afterpulse-like phenomenon of superconducting single photon detector in high speed quantum key distribution system. , 2011, Optics express.

[14]  Aaron J. Miller,et al.  Counting near-infrared single-photons with 95% efficiency. , 2008, Optics express.

[15]  Vikas Anant,et al.  Optical properties of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. , 2008, Optics express.

[16]  L. You,et al.  Performance of superconducting nanowire single photon detection system with different temperature variation , 2010 .

[17]  Masahide Sasaki,et al.  Multichannel SNSPD system with high detection efficiency at telecommunication wavelength. , 2010, Optics letters.

[18]  O. Okunev,et al.  Picosecond superconducting single-photon optical detector , 2001 .