Zolotov, P., Semenov, A., Divochiy, A., & Goltsman, G. (2021). A comparison of VN and NbN thin films towards optimal SNSPD efficiency. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 31(5), 1–4.
Abstract: Based on early phenomenological ideas about the operation of superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPD or SNSPD), it was expected that materials with a lower superconducting gap should perform better in the IR range. The plausibility of this concept could be checked using two popular SSPD materials – NbN and WSi films. However, these materials differ strongly in crystallographic structure (polycrystalline B1 versus amorphous), which makes their dependence on disorder different. In our work we present a study of the single-photon response of SSPDs made from two disordered B1 structure superconductors – vanadium nitride and niobium nitride thin films. We compare the intrinsic efficiency of devices made from films with different sheet resistance values. While both materials have a polycrystalline structure and comparable diffusion coefficient values, VN films show metallic behavior over a wide range of sheet resistance, in contrast to NbN films with an insulator-like temperature dependence of resistivity, which may be partially due to enhanced Coulomb interaction, leading to different starting points for the normal electron density of states. The results show that even though VN devices are more promising in terms of theoretical predictions, their optimal performance was not reached due to lower values of sheet resistance.
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Korneev, A., Korneeva, Y., Florya, I., Semenov, A., & Goltsman, G. (2018). Photon switching statistics in multistrip superconducting single-photon detectors. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 28(7), 1–4.
Abstract: We study photon count statistics in superconducting single-photon detectors consisting of up to 70 narrow superconducting strips connected in parallel. Using interarrival time analysis, we demonstrate that our samples are operated in the “arm-trigger” regime and require up to seven subsequently absorbed photons to form a resistive state in the whole sample. We also performed numerical simulation of the light and dark count rates versus detector bias current, which are in good agreement with the experimental results.
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Goltsman, G. (2017). Superconducting thin film as infrared heterodyne and direct detectors. In 16th ISEC (pp. 1–3).
Abstract: We present our recent achievements in the development of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) integrated with optical waveguides on a chip. We demonstrate both single-photon counting with up to 90% on-chip-quantum-efficiency (OCDE), and the heterodyne mixing with a close to the quantum limit sensitivity at the telecommunication wavelength using single device.
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Korneeva, Y., Florya, I., Vdovichev, S., Moshkova, M., Simonov, N., Kaurova, N., et al. (2017). Comparison of hot spot formation in nbn and mon thin superconducting films after photon absorption. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 27(4), 1–4.
Abstract: In superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPD), the efficiency of local suppression of superconductivity and hotspot formation is controlled by diffusivity and electron-phonon interaction time. Here, we selected a material, 3.6-nm-thick MoNx film, which features diffusivity close to those of NbN traditionally used for SSPD fabrication, but with electron-phonon interaction time an order of magnitude larger. In MoN ∞ detectors, we study the dependence of detection efficiency on bias current, photon energy, and strip width, and compare it with NbN SSPD. We observe nonlinear current-energy dependence in MoNx SSPD and more pronounced plateaus in dependences of detection efficiency on bias current, which we attribute to longer electron-phonon interaction time.
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Kahl, O., Ferrari, S., Kovalyuk, V., Vetter, A., Lewes-Malandrakis, G., Nebel, C., et al. (2016). Spectrally resolved single-photon imaging with hybrid superconducting – nanophotonic circuits. arXiv:1609.07857v1 [physics.ins-det].
Abstract: The detection of individual photons is an inherently binary mechanism, revealing either their absence or presence while concealing their spectral information. For multi-color imaging techniques, such as single photon spectroscopy, fluorescence resonance energy transfer microscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, wavelength discrimination is essential and mandates spectral separation prior to detection. Here, we adopt an approach borrowed from quantum photonic integration to realize a compact and scalable waveguide-integrated single-photon spectrometer capable of parallel detection on multiple wavelength channels, with temporal resolution below 50 ps and dark count rates below 10 Hz. We demonstrate multi-detector devices for telecommunication and visible wavelengths and showcase their performance by imaging silicon vacancy color centers in diamond nanoclusters. The fully integrated hybrid superconducting-nanophotonic circuits enable simultaneous spectroscopy and lifetime mapping for correlative imaging and provide the ingredients for quantum wavelength division multiplexing on a chip.
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