Nano-optical observation of cascade switching in a parallel superconducting nanowire single photon detector

Journal Article · Mon Feb 10 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4865199· OSTI ID:22283197

Tanner, Michael G.; Casaburi, Alessandro; Hadfield, Robert H. ^[1]; Webster, Mark G. ^[2]; San Emeterio Alvarez, Lara; Jiang, Weitao; Barber, Zoe H. ^[3]; Warburton, Richard J. ^[4]

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1. School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8LT, Scotland (United Kingdom)
2. Department of Statistics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom)
3. Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FS (United Kingdom)
4. Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel (Switzerland)

The device physics of parallel-wire superconducting nanowire single photon detectors is based on a cascade process. Using nano-optical techniques and a parallel wire device with spatially separate pixels, we explicitly demonstrate the single- and multi-photon triggering regimes. We develop a model for describing efficiency of a detector operating in the arm-trigger regime. We investigate the timing response of the detector when illuminating a single pixel and two pixels. We see a change in the active area of the detector between the two regimes and find the two-pixel trigger regime to have a faster timing response than the one-pixel regime.

• OSTI ID: 22283197
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 6; 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

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
EFFICIENCY
MULTI-PHOTON PROCESSES
PHOTONS
QUANTUM WIRES
SUPERCONDUCTING DEVICES
SUPERCONDUCTORS