Superconducting dual-resolution single-photon detectors with parallel nanowires
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1.School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China; 2.Jiangsu Integrated Circuit Reliability Technology and Testing System Engineering Research Center, Wuxi University,Wuxi 214105, China

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TN202

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    Abstract:

    This paper proposes a superconducting parallel-nanowire dual-resolution single-photon detector capable of simultaneously achieving photon-number resolution and spatial-position resolution under a single-output readout scheme. The detector consists of N superconducting nanowire units connected in parallel. Each unit incorporates a uniquely valued marking resistor in parallel to form an asymmetric resistor network, along with a series resistor of identical value. The entire array is biased by a common current source and read out through a single output channel. Taking a four-pixel structure as an example, with gradient-distributed shunt resistors (100, 200, 400, and 800 Ω) and a 50 Ω series resistor, LTspice simulations demonstrate that the superposition of response pulse amplitudes enables simultaneous discrimination of both photon number and spatial location, allowing up to 4-photon events and 15 distinct spatial response patterns to be identified. Further analysis indicates that the proposed structure effectively suppresses current shunting and latching effects commonly found in conventional parallel-nanowire detectors, thereby enhancing operational stability, albeit at the cost of reduced output signal amplitude and signal-to-noise ratio. This study provides a novel and feasible technical pathway for developing dual-resolution PNDs, offering a new perspective for future large-scale, high-count-rate, and low-SWaP-C multifunctional PNDs with full-information acquisition capabilities, thereby broadening potential applications in quantum imaging, lidar, and quantum communication.

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  • Received:
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  • Online: May 13,2026
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