Abstract: We describe a novel quantum detection mechanism in the superconducting film carrying supercurrent. The mechanism incorporates growing normal domain and breaking of superconductivity by the bias current. A single photon absorbed in the film creates transient normal spot that causes redistribution of the current and, consequently, increase of the current density in superconducting areas. When the current density exceeds the critical value, the film switches into resistive state and generates the voltage pulse. Analysis shows that a submicron-wide film of conventional low temperature superconductor operated in liquid helium may detect single far-infrared photon. The amplitude and duration of the voltage pulse are in the millivolt and picosecond range, respectively. The quantitative model is presented that allows simulation of the detector utilizing this detection mechanism.

Abstract: The thermal boundary resistance at the YBaCuO thin film/Al2O3 substrate interface was investigated. The transparency for thermal phonons incident on the interface as well as for phonons moving from the substrate was determined. We have measured a transient voltage response of current-biased films to continuously modulated radiation. The observed knee in the modulation frequency dependence of the response reflects the crossover from the diffusion regime to the contact resistance regime of the heat transfer across the interface. The values of transparency were independently deduced both from the phonon escape time and from the time of phonon return to the film which were identified with peculiarities in the frequency dependence. The results are much more consistent with the acoustic mismatch theory than the diffuse mismatch model.

Abstract: We present a new photon number resolving detector (PNR), the Parallel Nanowire Detector (PND), which uses spatial multiplexing on a subwavelength scale to provide a single electrical output proportional to the photon number. The basic structure of the PND is the parallel connection of several NbN superconducting nanowires (100 nm-wide, few nm-thick), folded in a meander pattern. Electrical and optical equivalents of the device were developed in order to gain insight on its working principle. PNDs were fabricated on 3-4 nm thick NbN films grown on sapphire (substrate temperature TS=900C) or MgO (TS=400C) substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering in an Ar/N2 gas mixture. The device performance was characterized in terms of speed and sensitivity. The photoresponse shows a full width at half maximum (FWHM) as low as 660ps. PNDs showed counting performance at 80 MHz repetition rate. Building the histograms of the photoresponse peak, no multiplication noise buildup is observable and a one photon quantum efficiency can be estimated to be QE=3% (at 700 nm wavelength and 4.2 K temperature). The PND significantly outperforms existing PNR detectors in terms of simplicity, sensitivity, speed, and multiplication noise.

Abstract: Gas sensors based on carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNFETs) have outstanding sensitivity compared to existing technologies. However, the lack of understanding of the sensing mechanism has greatly hindered progress on calibration standards and customization of these nano-sensors. Calibration requires identifying fundamental transistor parameters and establishing how they vary in the presence of a gas. This work focuses on modeling the electrical response of CNTFETs in the presence of oxidizing (NO2) and reducing (NH3) gases and determining how the transistor characteristics are affected by gas-induced changes of contact properties, such as the Schottky barrier height and width, and by the doping level of the nanotube. From the theoretical fits of the experimental transfer characteristics at different concentrations of NO2 and NH3, we find that the CNTFET response can be modeled by introducing changes in the Schottky barrier height. These changes are directly related to the changes in the metal work function of the electrodes that we determine experimentally, independently, with a Kelvin probe. Our analysis yields a direct correlation between the ON – current and the changes in the electrode metal work function. Doping due to molecules adsorbed at the carbon-nanotube/metal interface also affects the transfer characteristics.

Abstract: Detectors for infrared radiation ( lambda =0.85 mu m) were made of 50 nm thick YBa2Cu3O7- delta films on LaAlO3 and MgO or 60 nm thick films on NdGaO3. Parallel strips (1 mu m wide by 20 mu m long) were patterned in the films and formed the active device. These devices were designed to detect short infrared laser pulses by electron heating. The detectors were current biased into the resistive and the normal states. The response was studied in direct pulse measurements as well as by amplitude modulation of a laser. The pulse measurements showed a fast picosecond response followed by a slower decay related to phonon escape through the film-substrate interface and heat diffusion in the substrate. The frequency spectra up to 10 GHz showed two slopes with a knee corresponding to the phonon escape time.

Abstract: We present a novel, two-channel, single photon receiver based on two fibre-coupled, NbN, superconducting, single photon detectors (SSPDs). The SSPDs are nanostructured superconducting meanders and are known for ultrafast and efficient detection of visible-to-infrared photons. Coupling between the NbN detector and optical fibre was achieved using a micromechanical photoresist ring placed directly over the SSPD, holding the fibre in place. With this arrangement, we obtained coupling efficiencies up to ∼30%. Our experimental results showed that the best receiver had a near-infrared system quantum efficiency of 0.33% at 4.2 K. The quantum efficiency increased exponentially with the photon energy increase, reaching a few percent level for visible-light photons. The photoresponse pulses of our devices were limited by the meander high kinetic inductance and had the rise and fall times of approximately 250 ps and 5 ns, respectively. The receiver's timing jitter was in the 37 to 58 ps range, approximately 2 to 3 times larger than in our older free-space-coupled SSPDs. We stipulate that this timing jitter is in part due to optical fibre properties. Besides quantum communications, the two-detector arrangement should also find applications in quantum correlation experiments.

Abstract: Optical-to-electrical conversion, which is the basis of the operation of optical detectors, can be linear or nonlinear. When high sensitivities are needed, single-photon detectors are used, which operate in a strongly nonlinear mode, their response being independent of the number of detected photons. However, photon-number-resolving detectors are needed, particularly in quantum optics, where n-photon states are routinely produced. In quantum communication and quantum information processing, the photon-number-resolving functionality is key to many protocols, such as the implementation of quantum repeaters1 and linear-optics quantum computing2. A linear detector with single-photon sensitivity can also be used for measuring a temporal waveform at extremely low light levels, such as in long-distance optical communications, fluorescence spectroscopy and optical time-domain reflectometry. We demonstrate here a photon-number-resolving detector based on parallel superconducting nanowires and capable of counting up to four photons at telecommunication wavelengths, with an ultralow dark count rate and high counting frequency.