Avalanche PhotoniQ engineers semiconductor metasurfaces that absorb light with near-perfect efficiency — delivering the high detection efficiency and picosecond timing resolution that quantum computing, communication, and sensing demand. All without cryogenic cooling.
In scalable photonic quantum computing, a single photon can encode the result of a computation. In quantum communication, each detected photon adds to the secure key rate. In quantum networks, missing one photon means a failed entanglement distribution between nodes.
Today's best detectors — superconducting nanowires — push the limits of performance but demand complex cryogenic infrastructure that stops them from leaving the lab. Conventional semiconductor detectors are portable, but trade away either detection efficiency or timing resolution.
Avalanche PhotoniQ closes the gap: the performance of superconducting detectors in a semiconductor form factor that runs at room temperature.
At the heart of our detectors is a carefully engineered metasurface — an array of nanostructures whose shape and geometry are tuned to absorb light with near-unity efficiency while controlling where that absorption happens.
A semiconductor wafer is patterned into a precisely designed array of nanostructures — each pillar sized and shaped to interact with light at the subwavelength scale.
The metasurface geometry suppresses reflection and guides incident light into the active region. Virtually every incoming photon is absorbed — the probability of detection is dramatically improved.
Beyond absorbing efficiently, the metasurface localizes absorption to a well-defined region. This tight control enhances timing resolution beyond the limits of conventional semiconductor detectors.
When a photon is absorbed, it initiates an avalanche of charge carriers through the semiconductor. The event is amplified into a crisp, measurable electrical pulse.
Because the detector is semiconductor-based, it needs no cryostats, no helium, no bulky infrastructure. The result: a compact, deployable module for the field, the lab, or orbit.
The architecture is compatible with standard semiconductor processing, opening a path to large-area arrays and monolithic integration with photonic circuits — key to scalable quantum systems.
Near-unity absorption of incoming photons via engineered metasurface geometry.
Controlled absorption location enables picosecond timing resolution.
Room-temperature operation — no cryogenics, no helium supply chain.
Compact modules ready for arrays, satellites, and photonic integration.
From planetary-scale quantum networks to live-cell imaging, our detectors unlock measurements that were previously out of reach.
Scalable photonic quantum computers need thousands of high-efficiency detectors operating in parallel to reliably read out qubit states and computation results. Our semiconductor architecture removes the cryogenic bottleneck that limits today's systems.
Every additional detected photon raises the secure key rate of a QKD link. Our detectors improve the efficiency budget of ground-based and satellite-based quantum communication without the mass and power cost of cryogenic coolers.
In fluorescence and deep-tissue imaging, the sample cannot tolerate bright illumination. A detector that registers almost every photon reaching it turns a faint biological signal into a usable image.
Precise single-photon detection confirms successful entanglement between remote nodes of a quantum network, pinpoints subtle faults in CMOS devices via photon-emission microscopy, and enables new sensing modalities in defence, aerospace, and scientific instrumentation.
The environment we're building for moves quickly. A running snapshot of the research, products, and funding shaping single-photon detection, photonic integration, and optical compute.
Hydroxide-catalysis bonding enables robust fiber-to-PIC coupling across radiation, vacuum, and cryo cycling.
" "Programmable photonic neuromorphic hardware demonstrates fast all-optical learning and decision making.
" "SMSPD sensors show improved particle detection efficiency and time resolution using thicker WSi films.
" "Deal aims to bring SiPho PIC tech in-house for 800G/1.6T/3.2T optical connectivity roadmaps.
" "Company says SOH PICs target 200Gb/s per lane with smaller footprint and lower drive voltage.
" "Disordered mosaic metasurfaces demonstrate broadband lensing and polarization imaging in one surface.
" "Technique patterns lithium niobate and tantala on silicon to enable flexible wavelength conversion.
" "Voltage-controlled metalens approach switches between 2D and 3D modes in a single device.
" "Report says COUPE stacks electrical die atop photonic die to advance co-packaged optics integration.
" "Market forecast outlines CPO roadmaps and standards scenarios for AI cluster bandwidth scaling.
" "Curated from open sources including ScienceDaily, optics.org, Laser Focus World, and Optics & Photonics News.
Dr. Michael Reimer has spent his career at the frontier of quantum photonics — developing the devices and detectors that make quantum information science practically deployable.
From 2009 to 2014, Reimer was a postdoctoral researcher at TU Delft in the quantum optics lab of Professor Val Zwiller, where he helped create solid-state quantum devices including bright single-photon and entangled-photon sources based on shaped nanowire heterostructures, and efficient nanowire avalanche photodiodes. In 2013 he was an integral part of Single Quantum, the Delft startup that commercialized superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors now used by quantum labs worldwide.
In 2015 he joined the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. His Quantum Photonic Devices Lab advances quantum repeaters, single-photon sources, and — the foundation of Avalanche PhotoniQ — a new class of highly efficient semiconductor metasurface single-photon detectors. In 2023 he won the Photons Canada / Photonics North Pitch Competition on the strength of this work.
Avalanche PhotoniQ is the vehicle to bring that research out of the lab: a compact, room-temperature single-photon detector platform built for the quantum era.
University of Waterloo.
Technical University of Munich.
University of Ottawa.
Quantum optics group of Prof. Val Zwiller — nanowire single-photon and entangled-photon sources; nanowire avalanche photodiodes.
Delft-based startup commercializing superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors.
Founded the Quantum Photonic Devices Laboratory.
Landmark result in ACS Photonics on efficient single-photon detection with 7.7 ps timing resolution for photon-correlation measurements.
Institute for Quantum Computing and ECE, University of Waterloo.
Recognition for the metasurface single-photon detector technology underlying Avalanche PhotoniQ.
Whether you're deploying a quantum network, scaling a photonic quantum computer, or pushing the limits of low-light imaging, we're talking with partners and early customers.
