Researchers from NIST and JPL have developed a new detector array that can extract more information from single photons than previous systems. The array-on-a-chip technology, which is about 1.5 by 3 centimeters in size, uses superconducting detectors to record both the position and timing of individual photons. This allows for more efficient data encoding and transmission, particularly useful in long-distance space communications where low light levels make information encoding challenging.
The key innovation enabling this advancement was NIST’s development of a new detector material, tungsten-silicide, which has improved efficiency to over 90%. The technology could be scaled up to systems capable of counting nearly a billion photons per second with low false counts. The research was supported by DARPA and has potential applications in optical communications in space.
Keywords: Sensing, Photon, Detector, Nanowire, Communications
