Semenov, A., Engel, A., Il'in, K., Gol'tsman, G., Siegel, M., & Hübers, H. - W. (2003). Ultimate performance of a superconducting quantum detector. Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys., 21(3), 171–178.
Abstract: We analyze the ultimate performance of a superconducting quantum detector in order to meet requirements for applications in near-infrared astronomy and X-ray spectroscopy. The detector exploits a combined detection mechanism, in which avalanche quasiparticle multiplication and the supercurrent jointly produce a voltage response to a single absorbed photon via successive formation of a photon-induced and a current-induced normal hotspot in a narrow superconducting strip. The response time of the detector should increase with the photon energy providing energy resolution. Depending on the superconducting material and operation conditions, the cut-off wavelength for the single-photon detection regime varies from infrared waves to visible light. We simulated the performance of the background-limited infrared direct detector and X-ray photon counter utilizing the above mechanism. Low dark count rate and intrinsic low-frequency cut-off allow for realizing a background limited noise equivalent power of 10−20 W Hz−1/2 for a far-infrared direct detector exposed to 4-K background radiation. At low temperatures, the intrinsic response time of the counter is rather determined by diffusion of nonequilibrium electrons than by the rate of energy transfer to phonons. Therefore, thermal fluctuations do not hamper energy resolution of the X-ray photon counter that should be better than 10−3 for 6-keV photons. Comparison of new data obtained with a Nb based detector and previously reported results on NbN quantum detectors support our estimates of ultimate detector performance.
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Korneeva, Y., Florya, I., Semenov, A., Korneev, A., & Goltsman, G. (2011). New generation of nanowire NbN superconducting single-photon detector for mid-infrared. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 21(3), 323–326.
Abstract: We present a break-through approach to mid-infrared single-photon detection based on nanowire NbN superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPD). Although SSPD became a mature technology for telecom wavelengths (1.3-1.55 μm) its further expansion to mid-infrared wavelength was hampered by low sensitivity above 2 μm. We managed to overcome this limit by reducing the nanowire width to 50 nm, while retaining high superconducting properties and connecting the wires in parallel to produce a voltage response of sufficient magnitude. The new device exhibits 10 times better quantum efficiency at 3.5 μm wavelength than the “standard” SSPD.
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Yamashita, T., Miki, S., Qiu, W., Fujiwara, M., Sasaki, M., & Wang, Z. (2010). Temperature dependent performances of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors in an ultralow-temperature region. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 21(3), 336–339.
Abstract: We report on the performance of a fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) from 4 K down to the ultralow temperature of 16 mK for a 1550 nm wave length. The system detection efficiency (DE) increased with de creasing the temperature and reached the considerably high value of 15% with a dark count rate less than 100 cps below 1.5 K, even without an optical cavity structure. We also observed saturation of the system DE in its bias current dependency at 16 mK, which indicates that the device DE of our SNSPD nearly reached intrinsic DE despite the device having a large active area of 20 μm × 20 μm. The dark count was finite even at 16 mK and the black body radiation becomes its dominant origin in the low temperatures for fiber-coupled devices.
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Kovalyuk, V., Hartmann, W., Kahl, O., Kaurova, N., Korneev, A., Goltsman, G., et al. (2013). Absorption engineering of NbN nanowires deposited on silicon nitride nanophotonic circuits. Opt. Express, 21(19), 22683–22692.
Abstract: We investigate the absorption properties of U-shaped niobium nitride (NbN) nanowires atop nanophotonic circuits. Nanowires as narrow as 20nm are realized in direct contact with Si3N4 waveguides and their absorption properties are extracted through balanced measurements. We perform a full characterization of the absorption coefficient in dependence of length, width and separation of the fabricated nanowires, as well as for waveguides with different cross-section and etch depth. Our results show excellent agreement with finite-element analysis simulations for all considered parameters. The experimental data thus allows for optimizing absorption properties of emerging single-photon detectors co-integrated with telecom wavelength optical circuits.
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McCarthy, A., Krichel, N. J., Gemmell, N. R., Ren, X., Tanner, M. G., Dorenbos, S. N., et al. (2013). Kilometer-range, high resolution depth imaging via 1560 nm wavelength single-photon detection. Opt. Express, 21(7), 8904–8915.
Abstract: This paper highlights a significant advance in time-of-flight depth imaging: by using a scanning transceiver which incorporated a free-running, low noise superconducting nanowire single-photon detector, we were able to obtain centimeter resolution depth images of low-signature objects in daylight at stand-off distances of the order of one kilometer at the relatively eye-safe wavelength of 1560 nm. The detector used had an efficiency of 18% at 1 kHz dark count rate, and the overall system jitter was ~100 ps. The depth images were acquired by illuminating the scene with an optical output power level of less than 250 µW average, and using per-pixel dwell times in the millisecond regime.
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Marksteiner, M., Divochiy, A., Sclafani, M., Haslinger, P., Ulbricht, H., Korneev, A., et al. (2009). A superconducting NbN detector for neutral nanoparticles. Nanotechnol., 20(45), 455501.
Abstract: We present a proof-of-principle study of superconducting single photon detectors (SSPD) for the detection of individual neutral molecules/nanoparticles at low energies. The new detector is applied to characterize a laser desorption source for biomolecules and allows retrieval of the arrival time distribution of a pulsed molecular beam containing the amino acid tryptophan, the polypeptide gramicidin as well as insulin, myoglobin and hemoglobin. We discuss the experimental evidence that the detector is actually sensitive to isolated neutral particles.
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Xiaolong Hu, Holzwarth, C. W., Masciarelli, D., Dauler, E. A., & Berggren, K. K. (2009). Efficiently coupling light to superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 19(3), 336–340.
Abstract: We designed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) integrated with silver optical antennae for free-space coupling and a dielectric waveguide for fiber coupling. According to our finite-element simulation, (1) for the free-space coupling, the absorptance of the NbN nanowire for TM-polarized photons at the wavelength of 1550 nm can be as high as 96% by adding silver optical antennae; (2) for the fiber coupling, the absorptance of the NbN nanowire for TE-like-polarized photons can reach 76% including coupling efficiency at the wavelength of 1550 nm by adding a silicon nitride waveguide and an inverse-taper coupler.
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Yang, J. K. W., Kerman, A. J., Dauler, E. A., Cord, B., Anant, V., Molnar, R. J., et al. (2009). Suppressed critical current in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with high fill-factors. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 19(3), 318–322.
Abstract: In this work we present a new fabrication process that enabled the fabrication of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors SNSPD with fill-factors as high as 88% with gaps between nanowires as small as 12 nm. This fabrication process combined high-resolution electron-beam lithography with photolithography. Although this work was motivated by the potential of increased detection efficiency with higher fill-factor devices, test results showed an unexpected systematic suppression in device critical currents with increasing fill-factor.
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Somani, S., Kasapi, S., Wilsher, K., Lo, W., Sobolewski, R., & Gol’tsman, G. (2001). New photon detector for device analysis: Superconducting single-photon detector based on a hot electron effect. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, 19(6), 2766–2769.
Abstract: A novel superconducting single-photon detector (SSPD), intrinsically capable of high quantum efficiency (up to 20%) over a wide spectral range (ultraviolet to infrared), with low dark counts (<1 cps), and fast (<40 ps) timing resolution, is described. This SSPD has been used to perform timing measurements on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) by detecting the infrared light emission from switching transistors. Measurements performed from the backside of a 0.13 μm geometry flip–chip IC are presented. Other potential applications for this detector are in telecommunications, quantum cryptography, biofluorescence, and chemical kinetics.
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Stevens, M. J., Baek, B., Dauler, E. A., Kerman, A. J., Molnar, R. J., Hamilton, S. A., et al. (2010). High-order temporal coherences of
chaotic and laser light. Opt. Express, 18(2), 1430–1437.
Abstract: We demonstrate a new approach to measuring high-order temporal coherences that uses a four-element superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. The four independent, interleaved single-photon-sensitive elements parse a single spatial mode of an optical beam over dimensions smaller than the minimum diffraction-limited spot size. Integrating this device with four-channel time-tagging electronics to generate multi-start, multi-stop histograms enables measurement of temporal coherences up to fourth order for a continuous range of all associated time delays. We observe high-order photon bunching from a chaotic, pseudo-thermal light source, measuring maximum third- and fourth-order coherence values of 5.87 ± 0.17 and 23.1 ± 1.8, respectively, in agreement with the theoretically predicted values of 3! = 6 and 4! = 24. Laser light, by contrast, is confirmed to have coherence values of approximately 1 for second, third and fourth orders at all time delays.
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