Abstract: The paper reviews the main aspects of nonequilibrium hot-electron phenomena in superconductors and various theoretical models developed to describe the hot-electron effect. We discuss implementation of the hot-electron avalanche mechanism in superconducting radiation sensors and present the most successful practical devices, such as terahertz mixers and direct intensity detectors, for far-infrared radiation. Our presentation also includes the novel approach to hot-electron quantum detection implemented in superconducting x-ray to optical photon counters.

Abstract: We report our studies on the spectral sensitivity of superconducting NbN thin-film single-photon detectors (SPD's) capable of GHz counting rates of visible and near-infrared photons. In particular, it has been shown that a NbN SPD is sensitive to 1.55-µm wavelength radiation and can be used for quantum communication. Our SPD's exhibit experimentally measured intrinsic quantum efficiencies from 20% at 800 nm up to 1% at 1.55-µm wavelength. The devices demonstrate picosecond response time (<100 ps, limited by our readout system) and negligibly low dark counts. Spectral dependencies of photon counting of continuous-wave, 0.4-µm to 3.5-µm radiation, and 0.63-µm, 1.33-µm, and 1.55-µm laser-pulsed radiations are presented for the single-stripe-type and meander-type devices.

Abstract: We report on the fabrication process of the 2 × 2 superconducting single-photon detector (SSPD) array. The SSPD array is made from ultrathin NbN film and is operated at liquid helium temperatures. Each detector is a nanowire-based structure patterned by electron beam lithography process. The advances in fabrication technology allowed us to produce highly uniform strips and preserve superconducting properties of the unpatterned film. SSPD exhibit up to 30% quantum efficiency in near infrared and up to 1% at 5-μm wavelength. Due to 120 MHz counting rate and 18 ps jitter, the time-domain multiplexing read-out is proposed for large scale SSPD arrays. Single-pixel SSPD has already found a practical application in non-invasive testing of semiconductor very-large scale integrated circuits. The SSPD significantly outperformed traditional single-photon counting avalanche diodes.

Abstract: We present a new class of ultrafast single-photon detectors for counting both visible and infrared photons. The detection mechanism is based on photon-induced hotspot formation, which forces the supercurrent redistribution and leads to the appearance of a transient resistive barrier across an ultrathin, submicrometer-width, superconducting stripe. The devices were fabricated from 3.5-nm- and 10-nm-thick NbN films, patterned into <200-nm-wide stripes in the 4 /spl times/ 4-/spl mu/m/sup 2/ or 10 /spl times/ 10-/spl mu/m/sup 2/ meander-type geometry, and operated at 4.2 K, well below the NbN critical temperature (T/sub c/=10-11 K). Continuous-wave and pulsed-laser optical sources in the 400-nm-to 3500-nm-wavelength range were used to determine the detector performance in the photon-counting mode. Experimental quantum efficiency was found to exponentially depend on the photon wavelength, and for our best, 3.5-nm-thick, 100-/spl mu/m/sup 2/-area devices varied from >10% for 405-nm radiation to 3.5% for 1550-nm photons. The detector response time and jitter were /spl sim/100 ps and 35 ps, respectively, and were acquisition system limited. The dark counts were below 0.01 per second at optimal biasing. In terms of the counting rate, jitter, and dark counts, the NbN single-photon detectors significantly outperform their semiconductor counterparts. Already-identified applications for our devices range from noncontact testing of semiconductor CMOS VLSI circuits to free-space quantum cryptography and communications.