Finkel, M. I., Maslennikov, S. N., Vachtomin, Y. B., Svechnikov, S. I., Smirnov, K. V., Seleznev, V. A., et al. (2005). Hot electron bolometer mixer for 20 – 40 THz frequency range. In Proc. 16th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 393–397). Göteborg, Sweden.
Abstract: The developed HEB mixer was based on a 5 nm thick NbN film deposited on a GaAs substrate. The active area of the film was patterned as a 30×20 μm 2 strip and coupled with a 50 Ohm coplanar line deposited in situ. An extended hemispherical germanium lens was used to focus the LO radiation on the mixer. The responsivity of the mixer was measured in a direct detection mode in the 25÷64 THz frequency range. The noise performance of the mixer and the directivity of the receiver were investigated in a heterodyne mode. A 10.6 μm wavelength CW CO 2 laser was utilized as a local oscillator.
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Korneev, A., Minaeva, O., Rubtsova, I., Milostnaya, I., Chulkova, G., Voronov, B., et al. (2005). Superconducting single-photon ultrathin NbN film detector. Quantum Electronics, 35(8), 698–700.
Abstract: Superconducting single-photon ultrathin NbN film detectors are studied. The development of manufacturing technology of detectors and the reduction of their operating temperature down to 2 K resulted in a considerable increase in their quantum efficiency, which reached in the visible region (at 0.56 μm) 30%—40%, i.e., achieved the limit determined by the absorption coefficient of the film. The quantum efficiency exponentially decreases with increasing wavelength, being equal to ~20% at 1.55 μm and ~0.02% at 5 μm. For the dark count rate of ~10-4s-1, the experimental equivalent noise power was 1.5×10-20 W Hz-1/2; it can be decreased in the future down to the record low value of 5×10-21 W Hz-1/2. The time resolution of the detector is 30 ps.
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Kitaygorsky, J., Zhang, J., Verevkin, A., Sergeev, A., Korneev, A., Matvienko, V., et al. (2005). Origin of dark counts in nanostructured NbN single-photon detectors. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 15(2), 545–548.
Abstract: We present our study of dark counts in ultrathin (3.5 to 10 nm thick), narrow (120 to 170 nm wide) NbN superconducting stripes of different lengths. In experiments, where the stripe was completely isolated from the outside world and kept at temperature below the critical temperature Tc, we detected subnanosecond electrical pulses associated with the spontaneous appearance of the temporal resistive state. The resistive state manifested itself as generation of phase-slip centers (PSCs) in our two-dimensional superconducting stripes. Our analysis shows that not far from Tc, PSCs have a thermally activated nature. At lowest temperatures, far below Tc, they are created by quantum fluctuations.
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Milostnaya, I., Korneev, A., Minaeva, O., Rubtsova, I., Slepneva, S., Seleznev, V., et al. (2005). Superconducting nanostructured detectors capable of single photon counting of mid-infrared optical radiation. In A. Rogalski, E. L. Dereniak, & F. F. Sizov (Eds.), Proc. SPIE (Vol. 5957, 59570A (1 to 9)). SPIE.
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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Slysz, W., Wegrzecki, M., Bar, J., Grabiec, P., Górska, M., Latta, C., et al. (2005). Fiber-coupled quantum-communications receiver based on two NbN superconducting single-photon detectors. In A. Rogalski, E. L. Dereniak, & F. F. Sizov (Eds.), Proc. SPIE (Vol. 5957, 59571K (1 to 10)). SPIE.
Abstract: We present the design and performance of a novel, two-channel single-photon receiver, based on two fiber-coupled NbN superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs). The SSPDs are nanostructured superconducting meanders covering an area of 100 μm2 and are known for ultrafast and efficient counting of single, visible-to-infrared photons. Their operation has been explained within a phenomenological hot-electron photoresponse model. Our receiver is intended for fiber-based quantum cryptography and communication systems, operational at near-infrared (NIR) telecommunication wavelengths, λ = 1.3 μm and λ = 1.55 μm. Coupling between the NbN detector and a single-mode optical fiber was achieved using a specially designed, micromechanical photoresist ring, positioned directly over the SSPD active area. The positioning accuracy of the ring was below 1 μm. The receiver with SSPDs was placed (immersed) in a standard liquid-helium transport Dewar and kept without interruption for over two months at 4.2 K. At the same time, the optical fiber inputs and electrical outputs were kept at room temperature. Our best system reached a system quantum efficiency of up to 0.3 % in the NIR radiation range, with the detector coupling efficiency of about 30 %. The response time was measured to be about 250 ps and was limited by our read-out electronics. The measured jitter was close to 35 ps. The presented performance parameters show that our NIR single photon detectors are suitable for practical quantum cryptography and for applications in quantum-correlation experiments.
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