Ultrathin NbN Films for Superconducting Single-Photon Detectors
Wojciech Słysz, M. Guziewicz, Michal Adam Borysiewicz, J. Z. Domagała, Iwona Pasternak, Krzysztof Hejduk, W. Rzodkiewicz, Jacek Ratajczak, Jan Bar, M. Węgrzecki, P. Grabiec, Remigiusz Grodecki, Iwona Węgrzecka, Roman Sobolewski
We present our research on fabrication and structural and transport characterization of ultrathin superconducting NbN layers deposited on both single-crystal Al2O3 and Si wafers, and SiO2 and Si3N4 buffer layers grown directly on Si wafers.The thicknesses of our films varied from 6 nm to 50 nm and they were grown using reactive RF magnetron sputtering on substrates maintained at the temperature 850 • C. We have performed extensive morphology characterization of our films using the X-ray diffraction method and atomic force microscopy, and related the results to the type of the substrate used for the film deposition.Our transport measurements showed that even the thinnest, 6 nm thick NbN films had the superconducting critical temperature of 10-12 K, which was increased to 14 K for thicker films.
We present our research on fabrication and structural and transport characterization of ultrathin superconducting NbN layers deposited on both single-crystal Al2O3 and Si wafers, and SiO2 and Si3N4 buffer layers grown directly on Si wafers.The thicknesses of our films varied from 6 nm to 50 nm and they were grown using reactive RF magnetron sputtering on substrates maintained at the temperature 850 • C. We have performed extensive morphology characterization of our films using the X-ray diffraction method and atomic force microscopy, and related the results to the type of the substrate used for the film deposition.Our transport measurements showed that even the thinnest, 6 nm thick NbN films had the superconducting critical temperature of 10-12 K, which was increased to 14 K for thicker films.
Ultra-thin epitaxial NbN layers are a key component of Superconducting Single Photon infrared Detectors. Efforts devoted to the layer growth aim at improving their critical temperature and critical current density, while keeping their thickness close to 5 nm and Tc above 10 K, which insure a large bandwidth, large SNR detection at 4K. Choice of substrate is critical: for both applications, MgO wafers and R-plane sapphire are usually considered as best substrates to grown onto. However, growing NbN on M-plane orientation of sapphire wafer, 3 inch in diameter, can help improving the film quality and fabrication yield. NbN thin films were grown by reactive DC magnetron sputtering at about 600°C and passivated by an AlN layer 1.5nm thick deposited in-situ at room temperature. Growth on M-plane is shown to be better than on other sapphire orientations, including R-plane: NbN layer critical temperature reaches 13.3 K, uniform on the wafer, for a film thickness of 4.4nm measured by X-ray reflectivity. Transport properties of NbN grown on those various substrates have been correlated to their crystallographic microstructure, examined by both symmetric and asymmetric X ray diffraction. Observation of diffraction peaks has given insight on the disorientation of the NbN film.
At the present time, ultrahigh performance superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors are the key elements in a variety of devices from biological research to quantum communications and computing. Accurate tuning of superconducting material properties is a powerful resource for fabricating single-photon detectors with desired properties. Here, we report on the major theoretical relations between ultrathin niobium nitride (NbN) film properties and superconducting nanowire single-photon detector characteristics, as well as the dependence of ultrathin NbN film properties on reactive magnetron sputtering recipes. Based on this study, we formulate the exact requirements for ultrathin NbN films for ultrahigh performance superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. Then, we experimentally studied the properties of ultrathin NbN films (morphology, crystalline structure, critical temperature, and sheet resistance) on silicon, sapphire, silicon dioxide, and silicon nitride substrates sputtered with various recipes. We demonstrate ultrathin NbN films (obtained with more than 100 films deposition) with a wide range of critical temperature from 2.5 to 12.1 K and sheet resistance from 285 to 2000 Ω/sq and report a sheet resistance evolution of more than 40% within two years. Finally, we found out that one should use ultrathin NbN films with a specific critical temperature near 9.5 K and a sheet resistance of about 350 Ω/sq for ultrahigh performance state-of-the-art superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors at 1550 nm wavelength.
Abstract In this paper, we investigate the superconducting critical temperature, morphology and structural properties of NbN ultra-thin films (5–7 nm) deposited by reactive sputtering on top of silicon nitride (SiN) over 200 mm silicon wafers. We demonstrate the effectiveness of a 10 nm thick spacer layer of AlN in raising the superconducting critical temperature from 5.0 K to 7.2 K and from 7.3 K to 9.3 K for 5 nm and 7 nm NbN thickness respectively. By combining investigations with x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, we highlight significant modifications of the crystalline properties of the NbN film on top of the AlN spacer layer. When directly deposited on SiN, the grains of the NbN polycrystalline layer are randomly oriented. In contrast, when deposited on top of the AlN (0001) spacer layer, the NbN layer is textured along the (111) direction, leading to increased critical temperatures. As AlN is a CMOS-compatible material, these findings are particularly relevant in view of the future integration of high-performance superconducting nanowire single photon detectors on large-scale quantum photonic chips.
We report a milestone in achieving large-scale, ultrathin (~5 nm) superconducting NbN thin films on 300 mm Si wafers using a high-volume manufacturing (HVM) industrial physical vapor deposition (PVD) system. The NbN thin films possess remarkable structural uniformity and consistently high superconducting quality across the entire 300 mm Si wafer, by incorporating an AlN buffer layer. High-resolution X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy analyses unveiled enhanced crystallinity of (111)-oriented δ-phase NbN with the AlN buffer layer. Notably, NbN films deposited on AlN-buffered Si substrates exhibited a significantly elevated superconducting critical temperature (~2 K higher for the 10 nm NbN) and a higher upper critical magnetic field or Hc2 (34.06 T boost in Hc2 for the 50 nm NbN) in comparison with those without AlN. These findings present a promising pathway for the integration of quantum-grade superconducting NbN films with the existing 300 mm CMOS Si platform for quantum information applications.
We report the fabrication of NbN superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs) and the development of a receiver system operating in a standard transport helium dewar. The NbN- SSPDs consisted of a 3.5 to 6.7-nm-thick NbN ultrathin film meander line and a 150-nm-thick NbN thin-film coplanar waveguide line. The NbN ultrathin films were deposited on single-crystal MgO substrates by reactive dc-magnetron sputtering to grow the NbN ultrathin films epitaxially, and the films were formed so that they had 80 to 200-nm-wide meander lines, which covered a 20 times 20 or 50 times 50 mum2area. All devices demonstrated good superconductivity, e.g., a device with a 3.9-nm-thick and 80-nm-wide line had a Tcof 10.8 K, an Icof 19 muA, and a Jcof 5.9 times 106A/cm2, which meant there was no serious deterioration in superconductivity compared with unprocessed films. We describe a reliable connection between an optical fiber and the detector, a setup which was used for first tests with pulsed light.
Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) made with thin NbN films can reach high performances. While sputtering has been the deposition method of choice, here, we show that ammonia-molecular beam epitaxy (NH3-MBE) can produce pertinent epitaxial cubic NbN thin films on silicon substrates using an AlN buffer. Despite granular morphology and a high density of grain boundaries as well as the presence of rotational twins, Tc = 12.7 K for a 5.6 nm thick film and saturation of internal detection efficiency up to 850 nm are achieved. Morphology and stoichiometry as well as strain have a strong impact on the detector properties, highlighting the importance of a precise control of the growth parameters. These results pave the way for high fabrication yield of SNSPDs on large-scale silicon wafers using epitaxial NbN thin films grown by MBE.