Publications by Alessandro Gaggero

Waveguide superconducting single-photon detectors for integrated quantum photonic circuits

The monolithic integration of single-photon sources, passive optical circuits, and single-photon detectors enables complex and scalable quantum photonic integrated circuits, for application in linear-optics quantum computing and quantum communications. Her ...

American Institute of Physics2011

Nanophotonic technologies for single-photon devices

Laurent Balet, Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Gaggero

The progress in nanofabrication has made possible the realization of optic nanodevices able to handle single photons and to exploit the quantum nature of single-photon states. In particular, quantum cryptography (or more precisely quantum key distribution, ...

2010

Nanoscale Optical Detector with Single-Photon and Multiphoton Sensitivity

Francis Lévy, Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Gaggero

We present the first nanoscale (down to approximate to 50 x 50 nm(2)) detector displaying single-photon sensitivity and a nanosecond response. This type of nanodetector can also be operated in multiphoton mode, where the detection threshold can be set at N ...

American Chemical Society (ACS)2010

Nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors on GaAs for integrated quantum photonic applications

Rosendo Sanjines, Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Gaggero

We demonstrate efficient nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs) based on NbN thin films grown on GaAs. NbN films ranging from 3 to 5 nm in thickness have been deposited by dc magnetron sputtering on GaAs substrates at 350 degrees C. These ...

AIP American Institute of Physics2010

Physics and application of photon number resolving detectors based on superconducting parallel nanowires

Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Gaggero

The parallel nanowire detector (PND) is a photon number resolving (PNR) detector that uses spatial multiplexing on a subwavelength scale to provide a single electrical output proportional to the photon number. The basic structure of the PND is the parallel ...

2009

Superconducting parallel nanowire detector with photon number resolving functionality

Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Gaggero

We present a new photon number resolving detector (PNR), the Parallel Nanowire Detector (PND), which uses spatial multiplexing on a subwavelength scale to provide a single electrical output proportional to the photon number. The basic structure of the PND ...

2009

High quality superconducting NbN thin films on GaAs

Francis Lévy, Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Surrente, Alessandro Gaggero

A very promising way to increase the detection efficiency of nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) consists in integrating them with advanced optical structures such as distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) and optical waveguides. This req ...

2009

NbN nanowire superconducting single photon detectors fabricated on MgO substrates

Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Gaggero

We report on the fabrication and characterization of high performance nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPD) on MgO substrates. The deposition of the superconducting material (NbN) has been performed by magnetron sputtering at 400C. This d ...

2009

Superconducting nanowire photon-number-resolving detector at telecommunication wavelengths

Francis Lévy, Francesco Marsili, Konstantinos Lagoudakis, Alessandro Gaggero

Optical-to-electrical conversion, which is the basis of the operation of optical detectors, can be linear or nonlinear. When high sensitivities are needed, single-photon detectors are used, which operate in a strongly nonlinear mode, their response being i ...

Nature Publishing Group2008

Characterization of superconducting single photon detectors fabricated on MgO substrates

Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Gaggero

Electrical and optical characterization has been performed on several superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs) consisting of meanders made of ultrathin NbN films. The NbN films, with thickness ranging from 150 nm to 3 nm, were deposited by dc magnet ...

2008

High efficiency NbN nanowire superconducting single photon detectors fabricated on MgO substrates from a low temperature process

Francesco Marsili, Alessandro Gaggero

We demonstrate high-performance nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs) on bN thin films grown at a temperature compatible with monolithic integration. NbN films ranging from 150nm to 3nm in thickness were deposited by dc magnetron sputter ...

2008