A tunable coincidence counter based on superconducting nanowire cryotrons
Abstract
Single-photon coincidence counters are essential components in integrated quantum photonics, enabling efficient logic discrimination and real-time error correction at the chip level. However, monolithic integration at cryogenic temperature remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a coincidence counter based on superconducting nanowire cryotrons (nTron). The circuit comprises five nTron devices, including delay gates, buffer gates, and an AND gate, achieving a maximum bias margin of 22% at a bit error rate (BER) of 10−5. Operating at 1 MHz, the counter exhibits a static power consumption of 282 nW and a dynamic power consumption of approximately 2 nW at a maximum operation frequency of 17 MHz. The coincidence time window is tunable, with a minimum width below 1 ns, and its position can be adjusted via bias currents. This design offers compatibility with superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors in fabrication and operation, supporting monolithic integration for scalable quantum photonic systems.
Article Details
Journal Info
Applied Physics Letters
American Institute of Physics
Authors (19)
Nai-Tao Liu
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Qing-Yuan Zhao
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Yang-Hui Huang
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Long Wang
Zhen Liu
Jie Deng
Fan Yang
Sai-Ying Ru
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Zhen-Guo Li
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Yao-Yao Pan
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Yu Nie
Shun-Hua Wang
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Kang-He Lv
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Xue-Cou Tu
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Xiao-Qing Jia
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
La-Bao Zhang
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,
Jian Chen
Lin Kang
Pei-Heng Wu
Research Institute of Superconductor Electronics (RISE), School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University 1 , Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023,