Fabrication and Characterization of Superconducting NbN Nanowire Single

Francesco Marsili, David Bitauld, Alessandro Gaggero +5 more

Kentaro Waki, Taro Yamashita, Shin‐ichiro Inoue +5 more

Alexander A. Korneev, Gregory N Gol'tsman, Joonas T. Peltonen +8 more

David Bitauld, Francesco Marsili, Andrea Fiore +5 more

We report on the fabrication and characterization of high performance nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPD) on MgO substrates. The deposition of the superconducting material (NbN) has been performed by magnetron sputtering at 400°C. This deposition temperature is low enough to be compatible with the fabrication on traditional optical materials like GaAs. First, SSPD meanders covering a surface of 5 × 5 µm2 were characterized. We measured quantum efficiencies up to 20% at 1300 nm. Then, we used a straight 250 µm-long NbN nanowire to perform a spatially resolved measurement of the efficiency. Both efficiency dips and peaks were observed. The dips were correlated to lithographic defects, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. Conversely, no evidence of a lithographic origin of efficiency peaks was found.

Jeff A. Stern, William H. Farr

We report on the fabrication and characterization of high-speed, single photon detectors using superconducting NbN nanowires at a wavelength of 1064 nm. A 15 by 15 microns detector with a detector efficiency of 40% has been measured. Due to kinetic inductance, the recovery time of such large area detectors is longer than that of smaller or single wire detectors. The recovery time of our detectors (50 ns) has been characterized by measuring the inter-arrival time statistics of our detector.

P. Jung, Alexander V. Lukashenko, Alexander P. Zhuravel +5 more