Open AccessFast and accurate measurement of the polarization-dependent detection efficiency of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors
Author(s) -
Yue Fei,
Tianhao Ji,
Labao Zhang,
Guanghao Zhu,
Jiajun Tan,
Jiayu Lv,
Qi Chen,
Guoqing He,
Feiyan Li,
Xiaohan Wang,
Hui Li,
Yanqiu Guan,
Rui Yin,
Hao Wang,
Xiaoqing Jia,
Qing-Yuan Zhao,
Xuecou Tu,
Lin Kang,
Jian Chen,
Peiheng Wu
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.469445
Subject(s) - nanowire , optics , detector , polarization (electrochemistry) , photon , photonics , physics , absorptance , birefringence , spectral line , materials science , optoelectronics , chemistry , astronomy , reflectivity
Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have been extensively investigated due to their superior characteristics, including high system detection efficiency, low dark count rate and short recovery time. The polarization sensitivity introduced by the meandering-type superconductor nanowires is an intrinsic property of SNSPD, which is normally measured by sweeping hundreds of points on the Poincaré sphere to overcome the unknown birefringent problem of the SNSPD's delivery fiber. In this paper, we propose an alternative method to characterize the optical absorptance of SNSPDs, without sweeping hundreds of points on the Poincaré sphere. It is shown theoretically that measurements on the system detection efficiencies (SDEs) subject to cases of four specific photon polarization states are sufficient to reveal the two eigen-absorptances of the SNSPD. We validate the proposed method by comparing the measured detection spectra with the spectra attained from sweeping points on the Poincaré sphere and the simulated absorption spectra.