Integrated superconducting detectors on semiconductors for quantum optics applications

Semiconductor quantum photonic circuits can be used to efficiently generate, manipulate, route and exploit nonclassical states of light for distributed photon-based quantum information technologies. In this article, we review our recent achievements on the growth, nanofabrication and integration of high-quality, superconducting niobium nitride thin films on optically active, semiconducting GaAs substrates and their patterning to realize highly efficient and ultra-fast superconducting detectors on semiconductor nanomaterials containing quantum dots. Our state-of-the-art detectors reach external detection quantum efficiencies up to 20 % for ~4 nm thin films and single-photon timing resolutions <72 ps. We discuss the integration of such detectors into quantum dot-loaded, semiconductor ridge waveguides, resulting in the on-chip, time-resolved detection of quantum dot luminescence. Furthermore, a prototype quantum optical circuit is demonstrated that enabled the on-chip generation of resonance fluorescence from an individual InGaAs quantum dot, with a linewidth <15 μeV displaced by 1 mm from the superconducting detector on the very same semiconductor chip. Thus, all key components required for prototype quantum photonic circuits with sources, optical components and detectors on the same chip are reported.