Investigating the detection regimes of a superconducting single-photon detector

Elezov, M. S.; Semenov, A.; An, Pavel; Tarkhov, M. A.; Gol’tsman, G.; Кардакова, А. И.; Kazakov, A. Yu.

doi:10.1364/jot.80.000435

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…We furthermore confirm that our SNSPDs operate as single photon detectors by confirming that the count rate scales linearly with the attenuated laser power, when biased close to the critical current. 53,54 For this type of detector this unambiguously demonstrates the single-photon detection capability. 12…”

Section: Determination Of the On-chip Detection Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 65%

Superconducting single-photon detectors integrated with diamond nanophotonic circuits

et al. 2015

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Photonic quantum technologies hold promise to repeat the success of integrated nanophotonic circuits in non-classical applications. Using linear optical elements, quantum optical computations can be performed with integrated optical circuits and can therefore overcome the existing limitations in terms of scalability. In addition to passive optical devices for realizing photonic quantum gates, active elements, such as single-photon sources and single-photon detectors, are essential ingredients for future optical quantum circuits. Material systems that allow for the monolithic integration of all components are particularly attractive, including III-V semiconductors, silicon and diamond. Here, we demonstrate nanophotonic integrated circuits made from high-quality polycrystalline diamond thin films in combination with on-chip single-photon detectors. By using superconducting nanowires that are coupled evanescently to traveling waves, we achieve high detection efficiencies of up to 66% as well as low dark count rates and a timing resolution of 190 ps. Our devices are fully scalable and hold promise for functional diamond photonic quantum devices.

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Section: Determination Of the On-chip Detection Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 65%

Superconducting single-photon detectors integrated with diamond nanophotonic circuits

et al. 2015

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“…At a high photon flux (F > 0.1), i.e. at a large number of photons per pulse, multi-photon response even dominates at the highest bias current, as has been observed in NbN SNSPDs [37] for large laser power.…”

Section: Ir-and Visible Light Detectionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Low kinetic inductance superconducting MgB₂ nanowires with a 130 ps relaxation time for single-photon detection applications

Cherednichenko

Acharya

Novoselov

et al. 2021

Supercond. Sci. Technol.

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Properties of superconducting nanowires set the performance level for superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs). Reset time in commonly employed large area SNSPDs, 1-10 ns, is known to be limited by the nanowire's kinetic inductance to the load impedance ratio. On the other hand, reduction of the kinetic inductance in small area (waveguide integrated) SNSPDs prevents biasing them close to the critical current due to latching into a permanent resistive state. In order to reduce the reset time in SNSPDs, superconducting nanowires with both low kinetic inductance and fast electron energy relaxation are required. In this paper, we report on a study of kinetic inductance in narrow (15-100 nm) and long (up to 120 µm) superconducting MgB 2 nanowires made from 5 nm thick films, offering such combination of properties. Such films were grown using hybrid physical chemical vapor deposition, resulting in a critical temperature of ∼32 K, and a switch current density of 5 × 10 7 A cm −2 (at 4.8 K). Using microwave reflectometry, we measured a kinetic inductance of L k0 (4.8 K) = 1.3-1.6 pH/□ regardless of the nanowire width, which results in a magnetic field penetration depth of ∼90 nm. These values are very close to those in pristine MgB 2 . We showed that after excitations by a 50 fs pulsed laser the reset time in 35 nm × 120 µm MgB 2 nanowires is 130 ps, which is more than a factor of 10 shorter than in NbN nanowires of similar length-to-width ratios. Depending on the bias current, such MgB 2 nanowires function as single-, double, or triple-photon detectors for both visible (λ = 630 nm) and infrared (λ = 1550 nm) photons, with a dark count rate of <10 cps. Although the apparent photon detection efficiency seems so far to be low, further technological advances (uniform nanowire width, smaller thickness, increasing the switching current closer to the pair-breaking current) may improve this figure of merit.

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“…4(a) and 4(b), the red shaded areas represent the illumination range where the DUT acts as a single-photon detector, when operated at 0.65 I SW . The pure detection regime is typically defined as the working range for which a particular detection mechanism dominates over the others by 3 dB or more [17]. In Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SNSPDs can be classified as threshold detectors. This suggests that, when operated at suitable conditions [1,[17][18][19], they are able to distinguish only between the absorption of n photons or more, and less than n photons. This can be explained by considering the following detection mechanism model [12,[19][20][21][22][23]: the absorption of a photon in a superconducting nanowire generates a localized cloud of excited quasiparticles, called a hot-spot, with higher temperature than the ground state Cooper pairs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot-spot relaxation time current dependence in niobium nitride waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

Ferrari¹,

Kovalyuk²,

Hartmann³

et al. 2017

Opt. Express

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We investigate how the bias current affects the hot-spot relaxation dynamics in niobium nitride. We use for this purpose a near-infrared pump-probe technique on a waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detector driven in the two-photon regime. We observe a strong increase in the picosecond relaxation time for higher bias currents. A minimum relaxation time of (22 ± 1) ps is obtained when applying a bias current of 50% of the switching current at 1.7 K bath temperature. We also propose a practical approach to accurately estimate the photon detection regimes based on the reconstruction of the measured detector tomography at different bias currents and for different illumination conditions.

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Investigating the detection regimes of a superconducting single-photon detector

Cited by 13 publications

References 7 publications

Superconducting single-photon detectors integrated with diamond nanophotonic circuits

Superconducting single-photon detectors integrated with diamond nanophotonic circuits

Low kinetic inductance superconducting MgB₂ nanowires with a 130 ps relaxation time for single-photon detection applications

Hot-spot relaxation time current dependence in niobium nitride waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

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Investigating the detection regimes of a superconducting single-photon detector

Cited by 13 publications

References 7 publications

Superconducting single-photon detectors integrated with diamond nanophotonic circuits

Superconducting single-photon detectors integrated with diamond nanophotonic circuits

Low kinetic inductance superconducting MgB2 nanowires with a 130 ps relaxation time for single-photon detection applications

Hot-spot relaxation time current dependence in niobium nitride waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

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Low kinetic inductance superconducting MgB₂ nanowires with a 130 ps relaxation time for single-photon detection applications