Proposal for a superconducting photon number resolving detector with large dynamic range

Abstract

We propose a novel photon number resolving detector structure with large dynamic range. It consists of the series connection of N superconducting nanowires, each connected in parallel to an integrated resistor. Photon absorption in a wire switches its current to the parallel resistor producing a voltage pulse and the sum of these voltages is measured at the output. The combination of this structure and a high input impedance preamplifier result in linear, high fidelity, and fast photon detection in the range from one to several tens of photons.