Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Harvard College

University of California

California Institute of Technology

Columbia University

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchotron Desy

Karl Kimon Berggren

Adam N McCaughan

George M Whitesides

Amit Kumar

Younan Xia

Enoch Kim

James L Wilbur

Milan Mrksich

Caroline Anne Ross

Hans Biebuyck

Rebecca Jane Jackman

Mara G Prentiss

Christopher B Gorman

Qingyuan Zhao

Phillip Donald Keathley

Oguzhan Murat Onen

Xiaolong Hu

Brenden Butters

Joel K W Yang

Faraz Najafi

Marco Turchetti

Mina Bionta

Marin Soljacic

John Dimitris Joannopoulos

Dirk Robert Englund

Andrew J Kerman

Jacob C Mower

Yi Yang

Corey Patrick Fucetola

Hong K Choi

Vikas Anant

Charles Roques-Carmes

Ido Kaminer

Eric A Dauler

Tena Dubcek

Nicholas H Rivera

Yeon Sik Jung

Marco Colangelo

Matthew D Shaw

Steven E Kooi

Jae-Byum Chang

Amir Tavakkoli Kermani Ghariehali

Samuel Mospens Nicaise

Kevin Willy Gotrik

Yachin Ivry

Adam F Hannon

Jonathan J Surick

Daniele Masciarelli

Emily Toomey

Hasan Korre

Stefan Harrer

Giovanni A Salvatore

Joel K Yang

Kristen Ann Sunter

Di Zhu

Aviram Massuda

Boris Korzh

Yujia Yang

Felix Ritzkowsky

Dario Cattozzo Mor

Franz X Kaertner

William Putnam

Chris Gorman

Rebecca J Jackman

Some aspects are directed to an all-on-chip, optoelectronic device for sampling arbitrary, low-energy, near-infrared waveforms under ambient conditions. This solid-state integrated detector uses optical-field-driven electron emission from resonant nanoantennas to achieve petahertz-level switching speeds by generating on-chip attosecond electron burst. Also disclosed is a cross-correlation technique based on perturbation of local electron field emission rates that allows for the full characterization of arbitrary electric fields down to 1 femtojoule, and/or on the order of 500 kV/m, using plasmonic nanoantennas.

Integrated optical field sampling platform

Conventional readout of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) sets an upper bound on the output voltage to be the product of the bias current and the load impedance, I&#xd7;Z, where Zis limited to 50&#x3a9; in standard RF electronics. This limit is broken/exceeded by interfacing the 50&#x3a9; load and the SNSPD using an integrated superconducting transmission line taper. The taper is a transformer that effectively loads the SNSPD with high impedance without latching. The taper increases the amplitude of the detector output while preserving the fast rising edge. Using a taper with a starting width of 500 nm, a 3.6&#xd7; higher pulse amplitude, 3.7&#xd7; faster slew rate, and 25.1 ps smaller timing jitter was observed. The taper also makes the detector's output voltage sensitive to the number of photon-induced hotspots and enables photon number resolution.

Impedance matched superconducting nanowire photodetector for single- and multi-photon detection

An active three-terminal superconducting device having an intersection region at which a hot spot may be controllably formed is described. The intersection region may exhibit current crowding in response to imbalances in current densities applied to channels connected to intersection region. The current crowding may form a hot spot, in which the superconducting device may exhibit a measurable resistance. In some cases, a three-terminal superconducting device may be configured to sense an amount of superconducting current flowing in a channel or loop without having to perturb the superconducting state or amount of current flowing in the channel. A three-terminal superconducting device may be used to read out a number of fluxons stored in a superconducting memory element.

Current crowding in three-terminal superconducting devices and related methods

Apparatus and methods relating to programmable superconducting cells are described. A programmable superconducting cell can be formed from a superconducting current loop having at least two terminals connected to the loop. The current loop and terminals can be formed from a single layer of superconducting material. The programmable superconducting cell can be incorporated into a crossbar architecture to form a high-speed vector-matrix multiplying processor for deep neural network computations.

Superconducting nanowire-based programmable processor

A device that is a combination of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector and a superconducting multi-level memory. These devices can be used to count a number of photons impinging on the device through single-photon to single-flux conversion. Electrical characterization of the device demonstrates single-flux quantum (SFQ) separated states. Optical measurements using attenuated laser pulses with different mean photon number, pulse energies and repetition rates are shown to differentiate single-photon detection from other possible phenomena, such as multiphoton detection and thermal activation. Array devices and methods are also discussed.

Single-photon single-flux coupled detectors

A superconducting medium includes a first layer made of a first superconductor and a second layer made of a second superconductor. The first layer has a first thickness less than a first coherence length of the first superconductor. The second layer has a second thickness less than a second coherence length of the second superconductor so as to induce a proximity effect between the first layer and the second layer. The proximity effect can induce desirable properties in the resulting superconducting medium. Controlling the thickness ratio of the first layer to the second layer can also tune the property of the superconducting medium.

Systems and methods for hybrid superconducting medium comprising first and second layers with different superconductor to induce a proximity effect between thereof

An integrated, superconducting imaging sensor may be formed from a single, meandering nanowire. The sensor is capable of single-photon (or single-event) detection and imaging with &#x2dc;10 micron spatial resolution and sub-100-picosecond temporal resolution. The sensor may be readily scaled to large areas.

Distributed nanowire sensor for single photon imaging

An apparatus for generating Smith-Purcell radiation having at least one spectral component at a wavelength &#x3bb; includes a periodic structure including a dielectric material and an electron source, in electromagnetic communication with the periodic structure, to emit an electron beam propagating within about 5&#x3bb; from a surface of the periodic structure to induce emission of the Smith-Purcell radiation. The electron beam has an electron energy tunable between about 0.5 keV and about 40 keV so as to change a wavelength of the Smith-Purcell radiation.

Apparatus and methods for generating and enhancing Smith-Purcell radiation

Superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors (SNAPs) have using meandering nanowires to detect incident photons. When a superconducting nanowire absorbs a photon, it switches from a superconducting state to a resistive state, producing a change in voltage that can be measured across the nanowire. A SNAP may include multiple nanowires in order to increase the fill factor of the SNAP's active area and the SNAP's detection efficiency. But using multiple meandering nanowires to achieve high fill-factor in SNAPs can lead to current crowding at bends in the nanowires. This current crowding degrades SNAP performance by decreasing the switching current, which the current at which the nanowire transitions from a superconducting state to a resistive state. Fortunately, staggering the bends in the nanowires reduces current crowding, increasing the nanowire switching current, which in turn increases the SNAP dynamic range.

Superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors with reduced current crowding

A three-terminal device that exhibits transistor-like functionality at cryogenic temperatures may be formed from a single layer of superconducting material. A main current-carrying channel of the device may be toggled between superconducting and normal conduction states by applying a control signal to a control terminal of the device. Critical-current suppression and device geometry are used to propagate a normal-conduction hotspot from a gate constriction across and along a portion of the main current-carrying channel. The three-terminal device may be used in various superconducting signal-processing circuitry.

Superconducting three-terminal device and logic gates

A sacrificial-post templating method is presented for directing block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly to form nanostructures of monolayers and bilayers of microdomains. The topographical post template can be removed after directing self-assembly and, therefore, is not incorporated into the final microdomain pattern. The sacrificial posts can be a material removable using a selective etchant that will not remove the material of the final pattern block(s). The sacrificial posts may be removable, at least in part, using a same etchant as for removing one of the blocks of the BCP, for example, a negative tone polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) when a non-final pattern block of polystyrene is removed and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) remains on the substrate.

Removable templates for directed self assembly

Compactly-integrated electronic structures and associated systems and methods are provided. Certain embodiments relate to the ability to integrate nanowire-based detectors with optical components.

Compactly-integrated optical detectors and associated systems and methods

This disclosure relates generally to systems and methods of providing standardized topographical configurations for template regions. In one embodiment, a set of array arrangements is selected. Arrays of template structures are then formed on at least one substrate. Each of the arrays is arranged in accordance with an array arrangement in the set of array arrangements such that the arrays correspond surjectively onto the set of array arrangements. After the arrays are formed, a self-assembly material is provided on the arrays. Self-assembly patterns formed by self-assembling material as a result of the arrays may be empirically observed and used to map a set of self-assembly pattern arrangements surjectively onto the set of array arrangements. Using this mapping, a combination of the self-assembly pattern arrangements that match a target pattern arrangement can be used to select a combination of array arrangements from the set of array arrangements for a template region.

Standardized topographical arrangements for template regions that orient self-assembly

Growing community of inventors

Arlington, MA, United States of America

Karl Kimon Berggren