Speaker
Description
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) originated as a key enabling technology for quantum information science and remain a leading platform in that field. This is due to their excellent performance metrics: their near-unity detection efficiency, broad spectral sensitivity from ultraviolet to mid-infrared, low timing jitter down to the picosecond level [1], and short dead times This has driven their adoption well beyond quantum applications, including particle physics experiments, biomedical imaging, LIDAR, and optical telecommunications. Among the various superconducting materials employed, niobium titanium nitride (NbTiN) stands out as the most mature and widely adopted platform, owing to its well-characterized properties, high critical temperature, as well as low intrinsic jitter[2].
Despite these advantages, the practical deployment of SNSPDs remains constrained by their demanding cryogenic requirements. Most material platforms necessitate sub-kelvin[3] operation using sorption or adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators, which are costly to procure and require larger cryostats.
In this work, we propose that the elevated critical temperature of NbTiN enables SNSPD operation at higher cryogenic temperatures than conventional platforms typically allow, bringing device performance within reach of compact, closed-cycle cryocoolers. We report on the design of a low-cost and low-vibration Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryostat platform developed to improve the deployability of SNSPDs in space-constrained free-space applications, such as optical observatories.
This represents a significant step toward more affordable, lower-maintenance, low time jitter, high detection efficiency, and more widely deployable single-photon detection systems with a focus on the needs of the stellar intensity interferometry community.
References
[1] B. Korzh et al. 2020 Nat. Photonics 14 250–255.
[2] Iman Esmaeil Zadeh et al. 2020 ACS Photonics 7 1780–1787.
[3] Christina Wang et al. 2025 JINST 20 P08005.
