Milostnaya I, Korneev A, Minaeva O, Rubtsova I, Slepneva S, Seleznev V, et al. Superconducting nanostructured detectors capable of single photon counting of mid-infrared optical radiation. In: Rogalski A, Dereniak EL, Sizov FF, editors. Proc. SPIE. Vol 5957. SPIE; 2005. 59570A (1 to 9).
Abstract: We report on our progress in research and development of ultrafast superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) based on ultrathin NbN nanostructures. Our SSPDs were made of the 4-nm-thick NbN films with Tc 11 K, patterned as meander-shaped, 100-nm-wide strips, and covering an area of 10×10 μm2. The detectors exploit a combined detection mechanism, where upon a single-photon absorption, a hotspot of excited electrons and redistribution of the biasing supercurrent, jointly produce a picosecond voltage transient signal across the superconducting nanostripe. The SSPDs are typically operated at 4.2 K, but their sensitivity in the infrared radiation range can be significantly improved by lowering the operating temperature from 4.2 K to 2 K. When operated at 2 K, the SSPD quantum efficiency (QE) for visible light photons reaches 30-40%, which is the saturation value limited by the optical absorption of our 4-nm-thick NbN film. With the wavelength increase of the incident photons,the QE of SSPDs decreases significantly, but even at the wavelength of 6 μm, the detector is able to count single photons and exhibits QE of about 10-2 %. The dark (false) count rate at 2 K is as low as 2x10-4 s,-1 which makes our detector essentially a background-limited sensor. The very low dark-count rate results in a noise equivalent power (NEP) below 10-18 WHz-1/2 for the mid-infrared range (6 μm). Further improvement of the SSPD performance in the mid-infrared range can be obtained by substituting NbN for another, lower-Tc materials with a narrow superconducting gap and low quasiparticles diffusivity. The use of such superconductors should shift the cutoff wavelength below 10 μm.
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Gol'tsman G, Korneev A, Minaeva O, Rubtsova I, Milostnaya I, Chulkova G, et al. Superconducting nanostructured detectors capable of single-photon counting in the THz range. In: Proc. 16th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 2005. p. 555–7.
Abstract: We present the results of the NbN superconducting single-photon detector sensitivity measurement in the visible to mid-IR range. For visible and near IR light (0.56 — 1.3μm wavelengths) the detector exhibits 30% quantum efficiency saturation value limited by the NbN film absorption and extremely low level of dark counts (2x10 -4 s -1). The detector manifested single-photon counting up to 6 μm wavelength with the quantum efficiency reaching 10 -2 % at 5.6 μm and 3 K temperature.
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Ryabchun S, Korneev A, Matvienko V, Smirnov K, Kouminov P, Seleznev V, et al. Superconducting single photon detectors array based on hot electron phenomena. In: Proc. 15th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 2004. p. 242–7.
Abstract: In this paper we propose to use time domain multiplexing for large format arrays of superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs) of the terahertz, visible and infrared frequency ranges based on ultrathin superconducting NbN films. Effective realization of time domain multiplexing for SSPD arrays is possible due to a short electric pulse of the SSPD as response to radiation quantum absorption, picosecond jitter and extremely low noise equivalent power (NEP). We present experimental results of testing 2×2 arrays in the infrared waveband. The measured noise equivalent power in the infrared and expected for the terahertz waveband is 10 – 21 WHz -1/2 . The best quantum efficiency (QE) of SSPD is 50% at 1.3 µm wavelength.
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Zolotov PI, Vakhtomin YB, Divochiy AV, Seleznev VA, Smirnov KV. Technology development of resonator-based structures for efficiency increasing of NBN detectors of IR single photons. Proc 5th Int Conf Photonics and Information Optics. 2016:115–6.
Abstract: This paper presents a technology of fabrication of NbN superconductive single- photon detectors, using resonator structures. The main results are related to optimization of the process of NbN sputtering over substrate with metallic mirrors and SiO 2 /Si 3 N 4 layers /4 thick. Investigation of the quantum efficiency of fabricated devices at 1.6 K on 1.55 μm showed triple-magnified value compared to standard Si/NbN structures.
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Tarkhov M, Claudon J, Poizat JP, Korneev A, Divochiy A, Minaeva O, et al. Ultrafast reset time of superconducting single photon detectors. Appl Phys Lett. 2008;92(24):241112 (1 to 3).
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