PT Journal
AU Lusche, R
   Semenov, A
   Ilin, K
   Siegel, M
   Korneeva, Y
   Trifonov, A
   Korneev, A
   Goltsman, G
   Vodolazov, D
   Hübers, H
TI Effect of the wire width on the intrinsic detection efficiency of superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors
SO J. Appl. Phys.
JI J. Appl. Phys.
PY 2014
BP 043906 (1 to 9)
VL 116
IS 4
DI 10.1063/1.4891105
DE NbN SSPD; SNSPD; TaN
AB A thorough spectral study of the intrinsic single-photon detection efficiency in superconducting TaN and NbN nanowires with different widths has been performed. The experiment shows that the cut-off of the intrinsic detection efficiency at near-infrared wavelengths is most likely controlled by the local suppression of the barrier for vortex nucleation around the absorption site. Beyond the cut-off quasi-particle diffusion in combination with spontaneous, thermally activated vortex crossing explains the detection process. For both materials, the reciprocal cut-off wavelength scales linearly with the wire width where the scaling factor agrees with the hot-spot detection model.
ER