Future applications in integrated quantum photonics will require large numbers of efficient, fast, and low-noise single-photon counters. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors made from amorphous material systems are best suited to meet these demands, but the integration with nanophotonic circuits has remained a challenge. Here, we show how amorphous molybdenum silicide (MoSi) nanowires are integrated with nanophotonic silicon nitride waveguides in traveling wave geometry. We found a saturated on-chip detection efficiency of (73 ± 10) % for telecom wavelength photons and the sub-10 Hz dark count rate at a temperature of 2.1 K, which allows for operation in robust, compact, and economic cryogenic systems. Applications requiring fast counting will benefit from the sub-5 ns recovery times of our devices that we combine with 135 ps timing accuracy. Achieving this performance with waveguide-integrated amorphous superconductors is an important step toward enabling high yield fabrication of competitive single-photon detectors on a large variety of nanophotonic material systems.

中文翻译：

---

集成了纳米光子波导的非晶超导纳米线单光子探测器

集成量子光子学的未来应用将需要大量高效，快速和低噪声的单光子计数器。由非晶材料系统制成的超导纳米线单光子探测器最适合满足这些要求，但是与纳米光子电路的集成仍然是一个挑战。在这里，我们展示了无定形硅化钼（MoSi）纳米线如何与纳米光子氮化硅波导在行波几何中集成在一起。我们发现，电信波长光子的饱和片上检测效率为（73±10）％，在2.1 K的温度下，低于10 Hz的暗计数速率，可以在坚固，紧凑且经济的低温系统中运行。需要快速计数的应用将受益于我们设备的不到5 ns的恢复时间，我们将其与135 ps的定时精度结合在一起。利用集成波导的非晶态超导体来实现这一性能是迈向在各种纳米光子材料系统上高产量制造具有竞争力的单光子探测器的重要一步。