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

Title: Characterization of superconducting nanowire single-photon detector with artificial constrictions

Journal Article · · AIP Advances
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4881981· OSTI ID:22300068
; ; ; ;  [1]; ; ; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 865 Changning Road, Shanghai 200050 (China)

Statistical studies on the performance of different superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) on one chip suggested that random constrictions existed in the nanowire that were barely registered by scanning electron microscopy. With the aid of advanced e-beam lithography, artificial geometric constrictions were fabricated on SNSPDs as well as single nanowires. In this way, we studied the influence of artificial constrictions on SNSPDs in a straight forward manner. By introducing artificial constrictions with different wire widths in single nanowires, we concluded that the dark counts of SNSPDs originate from a single constriction. Further introducing artificial constrictions in SNSPDs, we studied the relationship between detection efficiency and kinetic inductance and the bias current, confirming the hypothesis that constrictions exist in SNSPDs.

OSTI ID:
22300068
Journal Information:
AIP Advances, Vol. 4, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2014 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2158-3226
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English