Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors for High-Data-Rate Deep-Space Optical Communication

NASA TechPort describes this completed STRG project as a superconducting-nanowire single-photon detector effort for high-data-rate deep-space optical communications. MIT researchers investigated detector jitter, efficiency, count rate, and kilopixel-scale arrays, including tungsten-silicide devices and readout physics, to support DSOC links from Mars and beyond while reducing spacecraft mass and power.