Optical bias and cryogenic laser readout of a multipixel superconducting nanowire single photon detector

Abstract

Cryogenic opto-electronic interconnects are gaining increasing interest as a means to control and readout cryogenic electronic components. The challenge is to achieve sufficient signal integrity with low heat load processing. In this context, we demonstrate the opto-electronic bias and readout of a commercial four-pixel superconducting nanowire single-photon detector array using a cryogenic photodiode and laser. We show that this approach has a similar system detection efficiency to a conventional bias. Furthermore, multi-pixel detection events are faithfully converted between the optical and electrical domains, which allows reliable extraction of amplitude multiplexed photon statistics. Our device has a latent heat load of 2.6 mW, maintains a signal rise time of 3 ns, and operates in free-running (self-resetting) mode at a repetition rate of 600 kHz. This demonstrates the potential of high-bandwidth, low noise, and low heat load opto-electronic interconnects for scalable cryogenic signal processing and transmission.