2019/11/05 by Serguei Cherednichenko, Narendra Acharya, Cherednichenko, Sergey +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Superconducting and THz Device Technology #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) #Superconductivity in MgB2 and Alloys
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1911.01652
openalex publication_date 2019/11/05 · openalex created_date 2022/07/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
State-of-the-art Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors based on\nlow-Tc materials reach 100% quantum efficiency. However, the response time is\nlimited to >1-10 ns. Recently, it has been shown that due to a much lower\nkinetic inductance, a 100 ps response rate can be achieved in 120 \μm-long\nMgB2 nanowires. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally that such\nMgB2 nanowires function as single-photon detectors for both visible\n(\λ= 630 nm) and infrared (\λ= 1550 nm) photons when biased close\nto the critical current, with a dark count rate of <10 cps. MgB2\nphotodetectors over-perform NbN SNSPDs in speed by at least an order of\nmagnitude for similar nanowire lengths. Such photodetectors offer a platform\nfor single-photon detectors with a long thought-after combination of a large\ndetector area and a response rate of up to 10 GHz with a single readout line.\n