Experimental investigation of the detection mechanism in WSi nanowire superconducting single photon detectors

Journal Article · Mon Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4958687· OSTI ID:22594460

Gaudio, Rosalinda; Zhou, Zili; Fiore, Andrea ^[1]; Renema, Jelmer J.; Exter, Martin P. van; Dood, Michiel J. A. de ^[2]; Verma, Varun B.; Lita, Adriana E.; Shainline, Jeffrey; Stevens, Martin J.; Mirin, Richard P.; Nam, Sae Woo ^[3]

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1. COBRA Research Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600MB Eindhoven (Netherlands)
2. Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333CA Leiden (Netherlands)
3. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305 (United States)

We use quantum detector tomography to investigate the detection mechanism in WSi nanowire superconducting single photon detectors. To this purpose, we fabricated a 250 nm wide and 250 nm long WSi nanowire and measured its response to impinging photons with wavelengths ranging from λ = 900 nm to λ = 1650 nm. Tomographic measurements show that the detector response depends on the total excitation energy only. Moreover, for total absorbed energies >0.8 eV the current–energy relation is linear, similar to what was observed in NbN nanowires, whereas the current–energy relation deviates from linear behavior for total energies below 0.8 eV.

• OSTI ID: 22594460
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
DETECTION
EXCITATION
NANOWIRES
NIOBIUM NITRIDES
PHOTONS
SUPERCONDUCTING DEVICES
TOMOGRAPHY
WAVELENGTHS