High-efficiency WSi superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors operating at 2.5 K

Journal Article · Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896045· OSTI ID:22350756

Verma, V. B.; Horansky, R. D.; Lita, A. E.; Mirin, R. P.; Nam, S. W. ^[1]; Korzh, B.; Bussières, F.; Zbinden, H. ^[2]; Marsili, F.; Shaw, M. D. ^[3]

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1. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305 (United States)
2. Group of Applied Physics, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 4 (Switzerland)
3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, California 91109 (United States)

We investigate the operation of WSi superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) at 2.5 K, a temperature which is ∼70% of the superconducting transition temperature (T{sub C}) of 3.4 K. We demonstrate saturation of the system detection efficiency at 78 ± 2% at a wavelength of 1310 nm, with a jitter of 191 ps. We find that the jitter at 2.5 K is limited by the noise of the readout and can be improved through the use of cryogenic amplifiers. Operation of SNSPDs with high efficiency at temperatures very close to T{sub C} appears to be a unique property of amorphous WSi.

• OSTI ID: 22350756
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
AMORPHOUS STATE
DETECTION
EFFICIENCY
NANOWIRES
PHOTODETECTORS
PHOTONS
READOUT SYSTEMS
SATURATION
SUPERCONDUCTING DEVICES
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0000-0013 K
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
TUNGSTEN SILICIDES
WAVELENGTHS