Broadband on-chip single-photon spectrometer

Abstract

Single-photon counters are single-pixel binary devices that click upon the absorption of a photon but obscure its spectral information, whereas resolving the color of detected photons has been in critical demand for frontier astronomical observation, spectroscopic imaging and wavelength division multiplexed quantum communications. Current implementations of single-photon spectrometers either consist of bulky wavelength-scanning components or have limited detection channels, preventing parallel detection of broadband single photons with high spectral resolutions. Here, we present the first broadband chip-scale single-photon spectrometer covering both visible and infrared wavebands spanning from 600 nm to 2000 nm. The spectrometer integrates an on-chip dispersive echelle grating with a single-element propagating superconducting nanowire detector of ultraslow-velocity for mapping the dispersed photons with high spatial resolutions. The demonstrated on-chip single-photon spectrometer features small device footprint, high robustness with no moving parts and meanwhile offers more than 200 equivalent wavelength detection channels with further scalability.

Waveguide‐Integrated Broadband Spectrometer Based on Tailored Disorder

“…To enable low‐cost and robust optical spectroscopy for portable sensing or lab‐on‐a‐chip functionality, the development of high‐resolution on‐chip spectrometers has therefore progressed substantially in recent years. Traditional on‐chip spectrometers are often based on Echelle gratings and arrayed waveguide gratings, and require careful design to meet target spectral requirements. The spectral resolution of those devices scales with the optical pathlength, resulting in relatively large footprints (≈1–2 cm 2 ).…”

Miniaturization of optical spectrometers

“…Moreover, by enhancing a particular aspect of performance, microspectrometers can be specialized for extreme measurements that are challenging to implement using a conventional system. For example, the relative strengths of on-chip singlephoton spectrometers (11,12) and single-nanowire spectrometers (13) lie in their ultra-high sensitivity detection and ultra-compact footprint, respectively. Since the early 1990s, miniaturized optical spectrometers have been demonstrated based on a wide variety of designs and working principles, with a range of operational spectral bands and resolutions.…”

Advances in Silicon Quantum Photonics

“…Though not demonstrated on the silicon photonic platform yet, these techniques rely on processing of the electronic detector pulses, and so are in principle transferable to any platform. Spectral multiplexing of SNSPDs has also been demonstrated [164], for example with a broadband chipscale single-photon spectrometer covering visible and infrared bands [165], with applications to frequency-domain source multiplexing. This device comprises a pulse time-of-flight measurement on a long SNSPD and features a 7 nm detection resolution and over 200 wavelength detection channels.…”