About

Richard Mirin is a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Santa Barbara. His research interests include III-V Semiconductor Epitaxy and Devices, Heterogeneous Materials Integration, Semiconductor Lasers, Chip-scale Nonlinear Optics, Quantum Dots, Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Single-Photon Sources and Detectors. He is based in Harold Frank Hall, Rm 4155, and can be contacted via phone at 805-893-8810 or email at mirin@ece.ucsb.edu. His work focuses on advancing semiconductor technologies and photonic devices, contributing to the development of innovative solutions in optoelectronics and quantum information processing.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Optoelectronics
• Nanotechnology
• Optics
• Physics
• Condensed matter physics

Selected publications

• A compact open microcavity platform for solid-state quantum electrodynamics

  2026-03-05

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Development Toward Tungsten Transition-Edge Sensors With Improved Energy Resolution in the Optical/NIR Regime

  IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity · 2026-04-22

  article

  We formulate an energy resolution model for optical transition-edge sensors which combines aspects of existing models with the goal of better defining and constraining energy resolution optimization. The combined model is found to be in better agreement with experimental data, while also allowing for theoretical exploration of phonon trapping for energy resolution enhancement. Additionally, we present preliminary data from our recent low critical temperature (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T_\textrm {c}$</tex-math></inline-formula> = 50 mK to 100 mK) tungsten Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) for the optical to Near Infra-Red (NIR) regime. Our tungsten TES detectors are shown to exhibit curious ‘inverse’ proximity effects compared to what is generally reported in the literature. A variety of wiring scheme test structures are analyzed under varying magnetic field shielding conditions in an effort to mitigate and characterize these spurious effects on the device <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T_\textrm {c}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. We develop an electron beam lithography fabrication method in order to reduce the edge roughness of our tungsten TES devices, and demonstrate a more uniform <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T_\textrm {c}$</tex-math></inline-formula> across various TES sizes when these e-beam lithography devices are measured within superconducting magnetic shielding.

  PublisherDOI

• Quantum Position Verification with Remote Untrusted Devices

  ArXiv.org · 2026-01-23

  articleOpen access

  Many applications require or benefit from being able to securely localize remote parties. In classical physics, adversaries can in principle have complete knowledge of such a party's devices, and secure localization is fundamentally impossible. This limitation can be overcome with quantum technologies, but proposals to date require trusting vulnerable hardware. Here we develop and experimentally demonstrate a protocol for device-independent quantum position verification that guarantees security with only observed correlations from a loophole-free Bell test across a quantum network. The protocol certifies the position of a remote party against adversaries who, before each instance of the test, are weakly entangled, but otherwise have unlimited quantum computation and communication capabilities. Our demonstration achieves a one-dimensional localization that is 2.47(2) times smaller than the best, necessarily non-remote, classical localization protocol. Compared to such a classical protocol having identical latencies, the localization is 4.53(5) times smaller. This work anchors digital security in the physical world.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Data for "Tungsten Germanide Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors with Saturated Internal Detection Efficiency at Wavelengths up to 29 µm"

  Open MIND · 2026-01-12

  datasetOpen access
  OA PDFDOI

• Replication Data for: Traceable random numbers from a non-local quantum advantage

  CORA.Repositori de Dades de Recerca · 2026-03-13

  datasetOpen access

  The unpredictability of random numbers is fundamental to both digital security1,2 and applications that fairly distribute resources3,4. However, existing random number generators have limitations—the generation processes cannot be fully traced, audited and certified to be unpredictable. The algorithmic steps used in pseudorandom number generators5 are auditable, but they cannot guarantee that their outputs were a priori unpredictable given knowledge of the initial seed. Device-independent quantum random number generators6,7,8,9 can ensure that the source of randomness was unknown beforehand, but the steps used to extract the randomness are vulnerable to tampering. Here we demonstrate a fully traceable random number generation protocol based on device-independent techniques. Our protocol extracts randomness from unpredictable non-local quantum correlations, and uses distributed intertwined hash chains to cryptographically trace and verify the extraction process. This protocol forms the basis for a public traceable and certifiable quantum randomness beacon that we have launched10. Over the first 40 days of operation, we completed the protocol 7,434 out of 7,454 attempts—a success rate of 99.7%. Each time the protocol succeeded, the beacon emitted a pulse of 512 bits of traceable randomness. The bits are certified to be uniform with error multiplied by actual success probability bounded by 2−64. The generation of certifiable and traceable randomness represents a public service that operates with an entanglement-derived advantage over comparable classical approaches.

  PublisherDOI

• Quantum Position Verification with Remote Untrusted Devices

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-01-23

  preprintOpen access

  Many applications require or benefit from being able to securely localize remote parties. In classical physics, adversaries can in principle have complete knowledge of such a party's devices, and secure localization is fundamentally impossible. This limitation can be overcome with quantum technologies, but proposals to date require trusting vulnerable hardware. Here we develop and experimentally demonstrate a protocol for device-independent quantum position verification that guarantees security with only observed correlations from a loophole-free Bell test across a quantum network. The protocol certifies the position of a remote party against adversaries who, before each instance of the test, are weakly entangled, but otherwise have unlimited quantum computation and communication capabilities. Our demonstration achieves a one-dimensional localization that is 2.47(2) times smaller than the best, necessarily non-remote, classical localization protocol. Compared to such a classical protocol having identical latencies, the localization is 4.53(5) times smaller. This work anchors digital security in the physical world.

  PublisherDOI

• Monolithic ion trap integration of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and photonics for trapped-ion qubit state readout

  2026-03-05

  article

  Atomic ions can be trapped in vacuum with dc and rf electric potentials generated by surface electrode ion traps, and used as qubits in quantum computing applications. Qubit state preparation and control is usually accomplished with laser light while the qubit state readout is achieved by observing qubit-state-dependent fluorescence from the ion while driving an optical cycling transition. The monolithic integration of optical waveguides and single-photon detectors into the ion trap itself provides both light delivery and fluorescence photon counting capability, offering benefits for scaling in trapped ion quantum computing by eliminating the need for free-space optical access to the trap. One promising candidate for integrated high-fidelity trapped-ion qubit state readout are superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs). However, the joint integration of photonics and superconducting detectors into ion trap chips presents challenges for their design, fabrication, and operation. In this work, we present our progress on the integration of SNSPDs into linear ion traps with integrated photonics designed for Ca+ qubits.

  PublisherDOI

• Low-loss InGaP-on-insulator waveguides for high-efficiency entangled pair generation and nonlinear photonics

  2026-01-10

  articleOpen access

  Nonlinear photonic platforms underpin applications ranging from spectroscopy to quantum communication, yet often face trade-offs between efficiency, loss, and scalability. An emerging platform, thin-film InGaP-on insulator, combines high χ² nonlinearity with wafer-scale fabrication. Here, we demonstrate second-harmonic generation pumped at 1550 nm with a normalized efficiency of 50±1 /W in a single-pass III–V waveguide and up to 50 mW of generated signal power. Conversely, devices enable high-brightness generation of time-energy entangled photon pairs with a per-bandwidth generation rate of 7.5 GHz/(mW·THz). Using InGaP grown via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), we show losses below 1 dB/cm at 1550 nm and stable phase matching across fabrication runs. An absolute measurement of the nonlinear response yields d₁₄=106±4 pm/V for InGaP grown via both MBE and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. These results demonstrate the scalability and efficiency of InGaP-on-insulator for entangled photon-pair sources and nonlinear photonic systems such as mid-infrared frequency conversion.

  PublisherDOI

• Low-loss InGaP-on-insulator waveguides for high-efficiency entangled pair generation and nonlinear photonics

  2026-01-10

  articleOpen access

  Nonlinear photonic platforms underpin applications ranging from spectroscopy to quantum communication, yet often face trade-offs between efficiency, loss, and scalability. An emerging platform, thin-film InGaP-on insulator, combines high χ² nonlinearity with wafer-scale fabrication. Here, we demonstrate second-harmonic generation pumped at 1550 nm with a normalized efficiency of 50±1 /W in a single-pass III–V waveguide and up to 50 mW of generated signal power. Conversely, devices enable high-brightness generation of time-energy entangled photon pairs with a per-bandwidth generation rate of 7.5 GHz/(mW·THz). Using InGaP grown via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), we show losses below 1 dB/cm at 1550 nm and stable phase matching across fabrication runs. An absolute measurement of the nonlinear response yields d₁₄=106±4 pm/V for InGaP grown via both MBE and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. These results demonstrate the scalability and efficiency of InGaP-on-insulator for entangled photon-pair sources and nonlinear photonic systems such as mid-infrared frequency conversion.

  PublisherDOI

• Traceable random numbers from a non-local quantum advantage

  Nature · 2025-06-11 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Sae Woo Nam

  339 shared

• Varun B. Verma

  National Institute of Standards and Technology

  206 shared

• Kevin L. Silverman

  105 shared

• Jeffrey M. Shainline

  104 shared

• Martin J. Stevens

  103 shared

• Adriana E. Lita

  National Institute of Standards and Technology

  96 shared

• Thomas Gerrits

  National Institute of Standards and Technology

  94 shared

• Matthew D. Shaw

  74 shared