%0 Journal Article
%T Single-photon-counting hotspot detector with integrated RSFQ readout electronics
%A Gupta, D.
%A Kadin, A. M.
%J IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.
%D 1999
%V 9
%N 2
%F Gupta+Kadin1999
%O exported from refbase (https://db.rplab.ru/refbase/show.php?record=1080), last updated on Fri, 03 Jun 2016 09:10:17 -0500
%X Absorption of an infrared photon in an ultrathin film (such as 10-nm NbN) creates a localized nonequilibrium hotspot on the submicron length scale and sub-ns time scale. If a strip /spl sim/1 /spl mu/m wide is biased in the middle of the superconducting transition, this hotspot will lead to a resistance pulse with amplitude proportional to the energy of the incident photon. This resistance pulse, in turn, can be converted to a current pulse and inductively coupled to a SQUID amplifier with a digitized output, operating at 4 K or above. A preliminary design analysis indicates that this data can be processed on-chip, using ultrafast RSFQ digital circuits, to obtain a sensitive infrared detector for wavelengths up to 10 /spl mu/m and beyond, with bandwidth of 1 GHz, that counts individual photons and measures their energy with 25 meV resolution. This proposed device combines the speed of a hot-electron bolometer with the single-photon-counting ability of a transition-edge microcalorimeter, to obtain an infrared detector with sensitivity, speed, and spectral selectivity that are unmatched by any alternative technology.
%K RSFQ
%K SSPD
%K SNSPD
%R 10.1109/77.784022
%U https://doi.org/10.1109/77.784022
%P 4487-4490