SNSPD-based detector system for NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications project

We report on a free-space-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detector array developed for NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications project (DSOC). The array serves as the downlink detector for DSOC’s primary ground receiver terminal located at Palomar Observatory’s 200-inch Hale Telescope. The 64-pixel WSi array comprises four quadrants of 16 co-wound pixels covering a 320-µm diameter active area and embedded in an optical stack. The detector system also includes cryogenic optics for filtering and focusing the downlink signal and electronics for biasing the array and amplifying the output pulses. The detector system exhibits a peak system detection efficiency of 76% at 1550 nm, a background-limited false count rate as low as 3.7 kcps across the array, a timing jitter less than 120 ps FWHM, and a maximum count rate of ∼1 Gcps.