For the past 50 years, superconducting detectors have offered exceptional sensitivity and speed for detecting faint electromagnetic signals in a wide range of applications. These detectors operate at very low temperatures and generate a minimum of excess noise, making them ideal for testing the non-local nature of reality, investigating dark matter, mapping the early universe and performing quantum computation and communication. Despite their appealing properties, however, there are at present no large-scale superconducting cameras—even the largest demonstrations have never exceeded 20,000 pixels. This is especially true for superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs). These detectors have been demonstrated with system detection efficiencies of 98.0%, sub-3-ps timing jitter, sensitivity from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared and microhertz dark-count rate, but have never achieved an array size larger than a kilopixel. We have recently developed a novel SNSPD camera architecture capable of significantly surpassing this limitation, demonstrating a 400,000-pixel SNSPD camera, a factor of 400 improvement over the state of the art [1]. With a number of immediate applications on the horizon, we invite proposals to investigate the applications of these SNSPD detectors and these newly-developed cameras.  Research opportunities include development of novel SNSPD device technologies, development of quantum and biomedical imaging applications, and incorporation of these cameras into future NASA space-telescopes such as the upcoming successor to the Hubble/James Webb missions.

[1] B. G. Oripov, D. S. Rampini, J. Allmaras, M. D. Shaw, S. W. Nam, B. Korzh & A. N. McCaughan. A superconducting nanowire single-photon camera with 400,000 pixels. Nature 622, 730–734 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06550-2 

key words

snspd; sspd; camera; biomedical; quantum; imaging; physics; electrical engineering; astronomy; astrophysics; fabrication; photon; nanowire;

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral applicants