arXiv:2512.17115v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Over the past decade, multi-element superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as the leading single-photon detection technology due to their exceptional system detection efficiency (SDE), ultrahigh timing precision, negligible dark counts, etc. However, achieving these performances with a textit{single-element} SNSPD has been an outstanding challenge due to a fundamental trade-off: a large active area is necessary for high SDE, while a smaller area is crucial for higher photon count rates, lower dark counts, and lower jitter. Here, we introduce an all-dielectric cryogenic metalens integrated with a single-element SNSPD to achieve high SDE with a smaller active area. Furthermore, we leverage a bifunctional metalens to demonstrate polarization-resolved photodetection at the telecommunication wavelength theoretically. Integrating multifunctional cryogenic metaurfaces with the state-of-the-art SNSPDs may enable novel capabilities with reduced size, weight, power, cost, and cooling (SWaP-C$^{2}$) requirements.