Alignment and characterization of multimode-fibre compatible superconducting nano-wire single-photon detector

This project aims to couple a multimode optical fiber(MMF) to a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector(SNSPD) and characterize it. SNSPDs are currently the most sensitive single-photon detectors available. But most of the current SNSPDs are coupled using single-mode fibers(SMF), which collect photons in only one spatial mode. This is inefficient when collecting photons from biological samples, as they are highly scattered and have multiple spatial modes.

MMFs on the other side allow the collection from different spatial modes, making them the perfect choice for applications in biomedical imaging and quantum biophotonics. But this creates an additional challenge as MMFs have a larger core area, and increases the background counts. Developing large area SNSPDs is difficult to fabricate and presents various challenges when it is coupled to MMF. This project aims to tackle these challenges and align and characterize the detector. This includes systematically measuring the detector efficiency, background counts, time jitter, and spatial resolution, and then optimizing these parameters. Once the detector performance has been properly characterized and optimized, it will be used to study ultra-weak biophoton emission from different biological samples. These photons originate from different biological processes and provide a new way of studying and understanding biological mechanisms.

Faculty Supervisor:

Daniel Oblak

Student:

Partner:

National Institute of Science Education and Research

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Quantum Science; Biotechnology

University:

University of Calgary

Program: