Detection efficiency of large-active-area NbN single-photon superconducting detectors in the ultraviolet to near-infrared range

Verevkin, A.; Zhang, J.; Sobolewski, Roman; Lipatov, A.; Okunev, O.; Chulkova, G.; Korneev, A.; Smirnov, K.; Gol’tsman, G.; Semenov, A. D.

doi:10.1063/1.1487924

Cited by 222 publications

(184 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Recently, the mechanism of current dissipation in quasi-2D narrow superconducting strips has been investigated. [14][15][16] We have numerically shown that the current dissipation in quasi-2D strips may arise from phase slips that involve two distinct kinds of saddle points of the free-energy functional. 16 A critical value of strip width w c is numerically determined.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical study of the phase slips in ultrathin doubly connected superconducting cylinders

Qiu

Qian

2009

Phys. Rev. B

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In the framework of Ginzburg-Landau theory, we numerically investigate the thermally activated phase slips which are responsible for the current dissipation in ultrathin doubly connected superconducting cylinders in the presence of transport current and external magnetic field along the cylinder axis. A hollow cylinder of radius R is mathematically transformed into a two-dimensional ͑2D͒ superconducting strip of width w =2R with periodic boundary condition. The phase slips may occur via free-energy saddle points of two distinct kinds. The saddle points of the first kind exhibit a one-dimensional ͑1D͒ variation of order parameter described by the ͑extended͒ Langer-Ambegaokar-McCumber-Halperin ͑LAMH͒ theory ͓Phys. Rev. 164, 498 ͑1967͒; Phys. Rev. B 1, 1054 ͑1970͔͒. The saddle points of the second kind exhibit a 2D variation of order parameter, showing that each phase slip is realized through a thermally activated process of vortex-antivortex pair creation and annihilation. In particular, there exists a critical radius R c separating the 1D LAMH behavior ͑below R c ͒ and the 2D vortex-antivortex behavior ͑above R c ͒. The effects of external magnetic field on these saddle points are presented. The critical radius R c is found to decrease with increasing field strength, and hence applying a magnetic field may induce a transition in the phase-slip characteristics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical study of the phase slips in ultrathin doubly connected superconducting cylinders

Qiu

Qian

2009

Phys. Rev. B

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“…Despite these technological advances, the fundamentals of the working principle of these detectors are poorly understood and under active investigation, both theoretically [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and experimentally [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

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confidence: 99%

Experimental Test of Theories of the Detection Mechanism in a Nanowire Superconducting Single Photon Detector

et al. 2014

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We report an experimental test of the photodetection mechanism in a nanowire superconducting single photon detector. Detector tomography allows us to explore the 0.8-8 eV energy range via multiphoton excitations. High accuracy results enable a detailed comparison of the experimental data with theories for the mechanism of photon detection. We show that the temperature dependence of the efficiency of the superconducting single photon detector is determined not by the critical current but by the current associated with vortex unbinding. We find that both quasiparticle diffusion and vortices play a role in the detection event. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.117604 PACS numbers: 79.20.Ws, 03.65.Wj, 85.25.Oj Nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs or SNSPDs) [1,2] are currently the most promising detection systems in the infrared, achieving detection efficiencies of up to 93% at 1550 nm [3]. Despite these technological advances, the fundamentals of the working principle of these detectors are poorly understood and under active investigation, both theoretically [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and experimentally [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].A typical SSPD consists of a few nm thin film of a superconducting material such as NbN or WSi, nanofabricated into a meandering wire geometry. When biased sufficiently close to the critical current of the superconductor, the energy of one or several photons can be enough to trigger a local transition to the resistive state, resulting in a detection event. The energy of the absorbed photon is distributed through an avalanchelike process, creating a nonequlibrium population of quasiparticles. This quasiparticle population then disrupts the supercurrent flow, resulting eventually in a detection event.In this Letter, we address the nature of this disruption, which lies at the heart of the photodetection mechanism in SSPDs. At present, there are three important open questions. First, it is unknown whether the detection event occurs when the energy of the incident photon causes a cylindrical volume inside the wire to transition to the normal state [see Fig. 1(a)] [1], or whether it is enough for the superconductivity to be weakened but not destroyed by the depletion of Cooper pairs over a more extended region [see Fig. 1The second open question is whether magnetic vortices play any role in the detection mechanism. There are two varieties of vortex-based models. The first is an extension of the normal-core model, where, a vortex-antivortex pair forms at the point where the photon is absorbed [ Fig. 1(c)] [5]. In the second, the weakening of superconductivity lowers the energy barrier for either a vortex crossing [6,23] or a vortex-antivortex pair crossing [ Fig. 1(d)].The last open question pertains to the temperature dependence of the photoresponse of SSPDs. Intuitively, one would expect the SSPD to be less efficient at lower temperatures, as the detector works by breaking superconductivity and the energy gap of a superconductor decreases with increasing temp...

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“…The device self reset to its superconducting state and the current through it recovers with the time constant L kin /50 W, where L kin is the kinetic inductance of the nanowire [83]. Superconducting detectors based on NbN nanowires operate at 2-4 K temperatures and are capable of very fast counting rates (up to GHz), low dark counts (< 1 Hz), and sensitivity from visible wavelengths to far into the infrared [68,[81][82][83][84]. While other superconducting detectors (TES), based on the bolometer principle, can also achieve low noise and high efficiency (88%) [85], they require cooling to much lower temperatures (~100 mK) and are much slo− wer (kHz−MHz).…”

Section: Single-photon Detectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanophotonic technologies for single-photon devices

Gerardino

Francardi

Gaggero

et al. 2010

Opto-Electronics Review

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The progress in nanofabrication has made possible the realization of optic nanodevices able to handle single photons and to exploit the quantum nature of single-photon states. In particular, quantum cryptography (or more precisely quantum key distribution, QKD) allows unconditionally secure exchange of cryptographic keys by the transmission of optical pulses each containing no more than one photon. Additionally, the coherent control of excitonic and photonic qubits is a major step forward in the field of solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics, with potential applications in quantum computing. Here, we describe devices for realization of single photon generation and detection based on high resolution technologies and their physical properties. Particular attention will be devoted to the description of single-quantum dot sources based on photonic crystal microcavites optically and electrically driven: the electrically driven devices is an important result towards the realization of single photon source “on demand”. A new class of single photon detectors, based on superconducting nanowires, the superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) are also introduced: the fabrication techniques and the design proposed to obtain large area coverage and photon number-resolving capability are described.

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Detection efficiency of large-active-area NbN single-photon superconducting detectors in the ultraviolet to near-infrared range

Cited by 222 publications

References 6 publications

Numerical study of the phase slips in ultrathin doubly connected superconducting cylinders

Numerical study of the phase slips in ultrathin doubly connected superconducting cylinders

Experimental Test of Theories of the Detection Mechanism in a Nanowire Superconducting Single Photon Detector

Nanophotonic technologies for single-photon devices

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