Advanced photon counting applications with superconducting detectors

Pizzone, Andrea (2017) Advanced photon counting applications with superconducting detectors. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as mature detection technology that offers superior performance relative to competing infrared photon counting technologies. SNSPDs have the potential to revolutionize a range of advanced infrared photon counting applications, from quantum information science to remote sensing. The scale up to large area SNSPD arrays or cameras consisting of hundreds or thousands of pixels is limited by efficient readout schemes.
This thesis gives a full overview of current SNSPD technology, describing design, fabrication, testing and applications. Prototype 4-pixel SNSPD arrays (30 x 30 µm2 and 60 x 60 µm2) were fabricated, tested and time-division multiplexed via a power combiner. In addition, a photon-number resolved code-division multiplexed 4-pixel array was simulated. Finally, a 100 m calibration-free distributed fibre temperature testbed, based on Raman backscattered photons detected by a single pixel fibre-coupled SNSPD housed in a Gifford McMahon cryostat was experimentally demonstrated with a spatial resolution of approximately 83 cm. At present, it is the longest range distributed thermometer based on SNSPD sensing.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering
• Supervisor's Name: Hadfield, Professor Robert H.
• Date of Award: 2017
• Depositing User: Doctor Andrea Pizzone
• Unique ID: glathesis:2017-8630
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 01 Feb 2018 09:38
• Last Modified: 23 Feb 2018 17:04
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/8630