The frontier of information processing lies in nanoscience and nanotechnology research. At the nanoscale, materials, and structures can be engineered to exhibit interesting new properties, some based on quantum mechanical effects. Our research focuses on developing nanofabrication technology at the few-nanometer length scale. We use these technologies to push the envelope of what is possible with photonic and electrical devices, focusing in particular on superconductive and free-electron devices. Our research combines electrical engineering, physics, and materials science and helps extend the limits of nanoscale engineering.
The nanocryotron: A superconducting-nanowire three-terminal electrothermal device
Recent QNN News
New Publication “Large-area microwire MoSi single-photon detectors at 1550 nm wavelength”
We demonstrate saturated internal detection efficiency at 1550 nm wavelengths for meander-shaped superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors made of 3 nm thick MoSi films with widths of 1 and 3 μm and active areas up to 400 × 400 μm2. Despite hairpin turns and a...
Talks at CLEO Conference
Our group participated to the CLEO2020 conference with four talks. You can find the recordings at the following links: Dr. Mina Bionta Towards Integrated Attosecond Time-Domain Spectroscopy (00:02:05) [also featured in the talk: What's Next in Ultrafast Optics - Hot...
New video “Optimizing Superconducting Thin Films for Nanowire Single Photon Detectors”
MIT Materials Research Laboratory 2019 Summer Scholar Leah Borgsmiller worked on niobium-aluminum thin films for superconducting nanowire single photon detectors in the QNN lab. Borgsmiller grew thin films, measured their superconducting transition temperature and...
New Publication “Resolving photon numbers using a superconducting tapered nanowire detector”
Time- and number-resolved photon detection is crucial for quantum information processing. Existing photon-number-resolving (PNR) detectors usually suffer from limited timing and dark-count performance or require complex fabrication and operation. Here, we demonstrate...
New Publication “Demonstration of sub-3 ps temporal resolution with a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector”
Improvements in temporal resolution of single-photon detectors enable increased data rates and transmission distances for both classical and quantum optical communication systems, higher spatial resolution in laser ranging, and observation of shorter-lived...