Gigahertz Detection Rates and Dynamic Photon-Number Resolution with Superconducting Nanowire Arrays

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have enabled the realization of several quantum optics technologies thanks to their high system detection efficiency (SDE), low dark counts, and fast recovery time. However, the widespread use of linear optical quantum computing, quasi-deterministic single-photon sources, and quantum repeaters requires even faster detectors that can also distinguish between different photon-number states. Here, we present an SNSPD array composed of 14 independent pixels, achieving an SDE of 90% in the telecommunications band. By reading each pixel of the array independently, we show detection of telecommunication photons at 1.5 GHz with 45% absolute SDE. We exploit the dynamic photon-number resolution of the array to demonstrate accurate state reconstruction for a wide range of light inputs, including operation with long-duration light pulses, as obtained with some cavity-based sources. We show two-photon and three-photon fidelities of 74% and 57%, respectively, which represent state-of-the-art results for fiber-coupled SNSPDs.