Potential of a Superconducting Photon Counter for Heterodyne Detection at Telecommunication Wavelength

Here, we report on successful operation of a NbN thin film superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) in a coherent mode (as a mixer) at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm. Providing the Local Oscillator power of the order of a few picowatts, we were practically able to reach the quantum noise limited sensitivity. The intermediate frequency gain bandwidth was limited by the spectral band of single photon response pulse of the detector, which is proportional to the detector size. We observed gain bandwidth of 65 MHz and 140 MHz for 7x7 mm2 and 3x3 mm2 devices respectively. Tiny amount of the required Local Oscillator power and wide gain and noise bandwidths along with the needless of any Low Noise Amplification opens possibility for a photon counting heterodyne born megapixel array development. References and links 1. A.T. Forrester, W.E. Parkins, And E. Gerjuoy, "On the Possibility of Observing Beat Frequencies between Lines in the Visible Spectrum,"  (1947) 2. 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