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arXiv:1309.7074 · Superconductor Science and Technology

Superconducting single-photon detector made of MoSi film

Yu. P. Korneeva, M. Yu. Mikhaı̆lov, Yuriy P. Pershyn, N. N. Manova, Alexander V. Divochiy, Yu. B. Vakhtomin, Alexander A. Korneev, Смирнов Константин Владимирович, A. G. Sivakov, Alexander Yu. Devizenko, Gregory N Gol'tsman

Published Aug 12, 2014• 97 citations
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Abstract

We fabricated and characterized nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors made of 4 nm thick amorphous Mo x Si 1− x films. At 1.7 K the best devices exhibit a detection efficiency (DE) up to 18% at 1.2 wavelength of unpolarized light, a characteristic response time of about 6 ns and timing jitter of 120 ps. The DE was studied in wavelength range from 650 nm to 2500 nm. At wavelengths below 1200 nm these detectors reach their maximum DE limited by photon absorption in the thin MoSi film.

DOI
10.1088/0953-2048/27/9/095012

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We report the fabrication of superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD, SSPD) based on molybdenum nitride (MoN) film with and without a cavity structure. Ultrathin polycrystalline γ-Mo2N films with aTcabout 6 K were obtained by reactive DC magnetron sputtering. The absorption efficiency of the device was calculated by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method using the optical constants of MoN determined by ellipsometry measurements. The SNSPD with a meander of 150-nm-width and 7-nm-thick nanowire showed a long saturation plateau in the bias current dependence of the system detection efficiency (SDE) at visible wavelength. The SNSPD with a cavity structure showed an SDE of 37% and a timing jitter of 79 ps at a wavelength of 1560 nm. The results show that MoN is a promising alternative to amorphous superconductors for high-performance SNSPD.
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