skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Graphene-Based Josephson-Junction Single-Photon Detector

Journal Article · · Physical Review Applied
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [4];  [6]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) (Spain). ICFO-Inst. de Ciencies Fotoniques
  3. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Pohang Univ. of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (Korea, Republic of)
  4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  5. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  6. Raytheon BBN Technologies, Cambridge, MA (United States)

In this work, we propose to use graphene-based Josephson junctions (GJJs) to detect single photons in a wide electromagnetic spectrum from visible to radio frequencies. Our approach takes advantage of the exceptionally low electronic heat capacity of monolayer graphene and its constricted thermal conductance to its phonon degrees of freedom. Such a system could provide high-sensitivity photon detection required for research areas including quantum information processing and radio astronomy. As an example, we present our device concepts for GJJ single-photon detectors in both the microwave and infrared regimes. The dark count rate and intrinsic quantum efficiency are computed based on parameters from a measured GJJ, demonstrating feasibility within existing technologies.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); US Office of Naval Research (ONR); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001088; N00014-14-1-0349; DMR-1231319
OSTI ID:
1535767
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1376922
Journal Information:
Physical Review Applied, Vol. 8, Issue 2; ISSN 2331-7019
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 56 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (76)

Inducing superconducting correlation in quantum Hall edge states journal April 2017
Ballistic-like supercurrent in suspended graphene Josephson weak links journal November 2013
Graphene field-effect transistors as room-temperature terahertz detectors journal September 2012
Drude conductivity of Dirac fermions in graphene journal April 2011
Single-photon detectors for optical quantum information applications journal December 2009
Ultrafast collinear scattering and carrier multiplication in graphene journal June 2013
Microwave Photon Detector in Circuit QED journal April 2009
Electron-phonon cooling in large monolayer graphene devices journal February 2016
Shot Noise in Ballistic Graphene journal May 2008
Fast Electron Thermometry for Ultrasensitive Calorimetric Detection journal January 2015
Robust Concurrent Remote Entanglement Between Two Superconducting Qubits journal September 2016
Single-mode heat conduction by photons journal November 2006
Quantum oscillations of the critical current and high-field superconducting proximity in ballistic graphene journal December 2015
Bipolar supercurrent in graphene journal March 2007
Mesoscopic Superconducting–Normal Metal–Superconducting Transistor journal August 1998
Interpretation of the Nonextensivity Parameter q in Some Applications of Tsallis Statistics and Lévy Distributions journal March 2000
Microwave Quantum Illumination journal February 2015
Josephson critical current in a long mesoscopic S-N-S junction journal January 2001
Single microwave-photon detector using an artificial Λ-type three-level system journal July 2016
Anomalous Thermodynamics of Coulomb-Interacting Massless Dirac Fermions in Two Spatial Dimensions journal May 2007
Temperature fluctuations in the canonical ensemble journal November 1992
Ballistic Graphene Josephson Junctions from the Short to the Long Junction Regimes journal December 2016
Quantum key distribution over a 40-dB channel loss using superconducting single-photon detectors journal June 2007
Electron-phonon mediated heat flow in disordered graphene journal September 2012
Measurement of the Electronic Thermal Conductance Channels and Heat Capacity of Graphene at Low Temperature journal October 2013
Physics of proximity Josephson sensor journal March 2010
Shot Noise in Graphene journal April 2008
Ballistic Josephson junctions in edge-contacted graphene journal July 2015
Microwave Photon Counter Based on Josephson Junctions journal November 2011
Dual-gated bilayer graphene hot-electron bolometer journal June 2012
Photoexcitation cascade and multiple hot-carrier generation in graphene journal February 2013
Microwave-Controlled Generation of Shaped Single Photons in Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics journal October 2014
Bolometric response in graphene based superconducting tunnel junctions journal April 2012
Hot Electron Cooling by Acoustic Phonons in Graphene journal August 2012
Lifetime of the zero-voltage state in Josephson tunnel junctions journal June 1974
Electrically Tunable Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in a Graphene-Based Josephson Junction journal September 2011
Measurements of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling out of the Zero-Voltage State of a Current-Biased Josephson Junction journal October 1985
One-Dimensional Electrical Contact to a Two-Dimensional Material journal October 2013
Ultrasensitive hot-electron nanobolometers for terahertz astrophysics journal July 2008
Observation of supercurrent in PbIn-graphene-PbIn Josephson junction journal March 2011
Ultrasensitive proximity Josephson sensor with kinetic inductance readout journal April 2008
Photon-Mediated Thermal Relaxation of Electrons in Nanostructures journal July 2004
Detection of Zeptojoule Microwave Pulses Using Electrothermal Feedback in Proximity-Induced Josephson Junctions journal July 2016
Unusual Microwave Response of Dirac Quasiparticles in Graphene journal June 2006
Phonon Bottleneck in Graphene-Based Josephson Junctions at Millikelvin Temperatures journal July 2013
Performance of graphene thermal photon detectors journal January 2013
Strong Enhancement of Light–Matter Interaction in Graphene Coupled to a Photonic Crystal Nanocavity journal October 2012
Hot electron tunable supercurrent journal February 1998
Ultrasensitive and Wide-Bandwidth Thermal Measurements of Graphene at Low Temperatures journal July 2012
Electron-phonon heat transfer in monolayer and bilayer graphene journal June 2010
Isospin Pomeranchuk effect in twisted bilayer graphene journal April 2021
Ultrafast collinear scattering and carrier multiplication in graphene. text January 2013
Graphene field-effect transistors as room-temperature terahertz detectors. text January 2012
Microwave-Controlled Generation of Shaped Single Photons in Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics text January 2014
Photoexcitation cascade and multiple hot carrier generation in graphene conference May 2013
Shot Noise in Graphene text January 2007
Shot Noise in Ballistic Graphene text January 2007
Microwave Photon Detector in Circuit QED text January 2008
Physics of Proximity Josephson Sensor text January 2009
Drude Conductivity of Dirac Fermions in Graphene text January 2010
Observation of Supercurrent in PbIn-Graphene-PbIn Josephson Junction text January 2011
Electrically Tunable Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in a Graphene-based Josephson Junction text January 2011
Bolometric response in graphene based superconducting tunnel junctions text January 2011
Hot electron cooling by acoustic phonons in graphene text January 2012
Electron-phonon mediated heat flow in disordered graphene text January 2012
Photo-excitation Cascade and Multiple Carrier Generation in Graphene text January 2012
Performance of Graphene Thermal Photon Detectors text January 2012
Fast electron thermometry towards ultra-sensitive calorimetric detection text January 2014
Ballistic Josephson junctions in edge-contacted graphene text January 2015
Microwave Quantum Illumination text January 2015
Quantum oscillations of the critical current and high-field superconducting proximity in ballistic graphene text January 2015
Electron-phonon cooling in large monolayer graphene devices text January 2015
Unusual Microwave Response of Dirac Quasiparticles in Graphene text January 2006
Single-mode heat conduction by photons text January 2006
Anomalous thermodynamics of Coulomb interacting massless Dirac fermions in two spatial dimensions text January 2007
Nanowire and graphene architectures for Room Temperature THz detection conference September 2012

Cited By (18)

Hybrid 2D‐Material Photonics with Bound States in the Continuum journal September 2019
Breakdown of Zero-Energy Quantum Hall State in Graphene in the Light of Current Fluctuations and Shot Noise journal January 2018
Switching Dynamics of an Underdamped Josephson Junction Coupled to a Microwave Cavity journal May 2018
Fast thermal relaxation in cavity-coupled graphene bolometers with a Johnson noise read-out journal June 2018
2D materials for quantum information science journal August 2019
Current-driven production of vortex-antivortex pairs in planar Josephson junction arrays and phase cracks in long-range order journal October 2018
Modification of electron-phonon coupling by micromachining and suspension journal January 2020
Proximity coupling in superconductor-graphene heterostructures journal March 2018
Nonlinear Critical-Current Thermal Response of an Asymmetric Josephson Tunnel Junction journal February 2019
Superconducting nanoribbon with a constriction: A quantum-confined Josephson junction journal April 2018
Nanoscale quantum calorimetry with electronic temperature fluctuations journal November 2018
Proposal to Detect Dark Matter using Axionic Topological Antiferromagnets journal September 2019
Hydrodynamics of electrons in graphene text January 2017
Breakdown of zero-energy quantum Hall state in graphene in the light of current fluctuations and shot noise text January 2018
Superconducting nanoribbon with a constriction: A quantum-confined Josephson junction text January 2018
Nanoscale Quantum Calorimetry with Electronic Temperature Fluctuations text January 2018
Modification of electron-phonon coupling by micromachining and suspension text January 2019
Comparative Analysis of Room Temperature Plasmonic Graphene Hot Electron Bolometric Photodetectors preprint January 2020