A tunable coincidence counter based on superconducting nanowire cryotrons

Single-photon coincidence counters are essential components in integrated quantum photonics, enabling efficient logic discrimination and real-time error correction at the chip level. However, monolithic integration at cryogenic temperature remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a coincidence counter based on superconducting nanowire cryotrons (nTron). The circuit comprises five nTron devices, including delay gates, buffer gates, and an AND gate, achieving a maximum bias margin of 22% at a bit error rate (BER) of 10−5. Operating at 1 MHz, the counter exhibits a static power consumption of 282 nW and a dynamic power consumption of approximately 2 nW at a maximum operation frequency of 17 MHz. The coincidence time window is tunable, with a minimum width below 1 ns, and its position can be adjusted via bias currents. This design offers compatibility with superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors in fabrication and operation, supporting monolithic integration for scalable quantum photonic systems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Applied Physics Letters
Published
2026-06-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0334034
Primary Topic
Quantum Information and Cryptography
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

A tunable coincidence counter based on superconducting nanowire cryotrons

Jian Chen, Xiaoqing Jia, Xuecou Tu, Sai‐Ying Ru et al.
Applied Physics Letters
Quantum Information and Cryptography
article

A tunable coincidence counter based on superconducting nanowire cryotrons

Jian Chen, Xiaoqing Jia, Xuecou Tu, Sai‐Ying Ru, Labao Zhang, S Q Wang, Peiheng Wu, Nai‐Tao Liu, Qingyuan Zhao, Z.H. Liu, Lin Kang, LI Zhen-guo, Yao-Yao Pan, Y Huang, Fan Yang, Kang-He Lv, Jie Deng, Yu Nie, Long Wang
article en

Abstract

Single-photon coincidence counters are essential components in integrated quantum photonics, enabling efficient logic discrimination and real-time error correction at the chip level. However, monolithic integration at cryogenic temperature remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a coincidence counter based on superconducting nanowire cryotrons (nTron). The circuit comprises five nTron devices, including delay gates, buffer gates, and an AND gate, achieving a maximum bias margin of 22% at a bit error rate (BER) of 10−5. Operating at 1 MHz, the counter exhibits a static power consumption of 282 nW and a dynamic power consumption of approximately 2 nW at a maximum operation frequency of 17 MHz. The coincidence time window is tunable, with a minimum width below 1 ns, and its position can be adjusted via bias currents. This design offers compatibility with superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors in fabrication and operation, supporting monolithic integration for scalable quantum photonic systems.

Applied Physics LettersVol. 128(26)
Hefei University (CN), Institute of Electronics (CN), Purple Mountain Laboratories (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Manipulating Technique of Electromagnetic Wave, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Quantum Information and Cryptography
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