An ultra-fast superconducting Nb nanowire single-photon detector for soft x-rays

Journal Article · Mon Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4759046· OSTI ID:22080493

Inderbitzin, K; Engel, A; Schilling, A ^[1]; Il'in, K; Siegel, M ^[2]

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1. Physics Institute, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstr. 190, 8057 Zurich (Switzerland)
2. Institute of Micro- and Nano-Electronic Systems, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hertzstr. 16, 76187 Karlsruhe (Germany)

Although superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are well studied regarding the detection of infrared/optical photons and keV-molecules, no studies on continuous x-ray photon counting by thick-film detectors have been reported so far. We fabricated a 100 nm thick niobium x-ray SNSPD (an X-SNSPD) and studied its detection capability of photons with keV-energies in continuous mode. The detector is capable to detect photons even at reduced bias currents of 0.4%, which is in sharp contrast to optical thin-film SNSPDs. No dark counts were recorded in extended measurement periods. Strikingly, the signal amplitude distribution depends significantly on the photon energy spectrum.

• OSTI ID: 22080493
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 16; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
AMPLITUDES
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY SPECTRA
KEV RANGE
MOLECULES
NIOBIUM
PHOTODETECTORS
QUANTUM WIRES
SENSORS
SOFT X RADIATION
SUPERCONDUCTING DEVICES
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DETECTION