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International Symposium on Ultrafast Phenomena and Terahertz Waves (ISUPTW)

The influence of Nb and Ti interface on DC characteristics of superconducting titanium t ransition e dge s ensors

Yue Geng, Wen Zhang, Zheng Wang, Jiaqiang Zhong, Wei Miao, Qijun Yao, Sheng‐Cai Shi

Published Jan 1, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Superconducting transition-edge sensor single photon detectors (TESs) are attractive in quantum optics and quantum information experiments owing to their high quantum efficiency and photon number resolving capability. In this paper, we present the design and DC characteristics of superconducting Ti TESs with different overlapping area between Ti microbridge and Nb leads.

DOI
10.1364/isuptw.2018.thb4

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Superconducting transition-edge sensor single photon detectors (TESs) are attractive in quantum optics and quantum information experiments owing to their high quantum efficiency and photon number resolving capability. In this paper, we present the design and DC characteristics of superconducting Ti TESs with different overlapping area between Ti microbridge and Nb leads.
Superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs), working as single-photon detectors with high quantum efficiency, low dark count rate, and photon number resolving capability, have been successfully used in quantum information experiments as well as astronomical transient object observations. Aiming to achieve high count rate, we are developing titanium-based superconducting TES single-photon detectors with a critical temperature of ~300 mK. Ti-based TESs with active area from 10 × 10 μm to 40 × 40 μm are first fabricated on silicon substrate coated with SiOx. The fabricated TES devices show a thermal conductance scaling with the active area and an effective time constant of ~4 μs from pulsed laser diode illumination. In order to get high quantum efficiency, we further design and fabricate a 1550-nm optical cavity based on dielectric mirror and antireflection layer, and study its absorption with an IR spectrometer. Ti TES devices on the dielectric mirror are then fabricated and the superconducting transition is measured.
Transition edge sensors (TESs) with high energy resolution (ΔE) at telecommunication wavelengths have been realized in the last years for application to experiments of quantum optics and quantum information. In these fields, lasers with repetition rate of the order of 50 MHz are usually applied and hence TES with recovery times lower than 20 ns would be desirable. To this aim, Ti TESs with area ranging between 1 μm × 1 μm and 2 μm × 2 μm are fabricated and characterized, to study the effects of the different sizes of active areas and critical temperatures on the energy resolutions and on the response times. Titanium TESs have been fabricated by thermal evaporation and Electron Beam Lithography technique on Si/SiN substrates, and they have been electrically and optically characterized. The experimental data have been analyzed and correlated to the detector geometrical parameters. The superconducting transitions of TESs with areas down to 1 μm × 1 μm result to be affected by lateral proximity effects of Nb wirings. Ti TESs with critical temperature of 470 mK show response time of about 150 ns and energy resolution of 0.16 eV.
Transition-edge sensors (TESs) have shown the capability of both energy resolution and resolving photon numbers. In this work, we present the fabrication and characterization of high detection efficiency Ti optical TESs with the critical temperatureTc= 213 mK and the photon-number resolving capability at telecommunication wavelength 1550 nm. The Ti superconducting film is prepared by a DC magnetron sputtering technique. An optical cavity comprised of 5-layers antireflection and 15-layers high-reflection Ta2O5/SiO2is enclosed with the Ti film by an ion beam assisted deposition method to improve detection efficiency, which brings the absorption of 99.74%. The energy resolution for the Ti TES with sensitive area 20 μm × 20 μm is 0.45 eV and the detection efficiency is 97% ± 1%.
Transition-Edge Sensors (TESs) are superconducting photon detectors offering high quantum efficiency, energy resolution, and photon-number discrimination, making them attractive for quantum sensing applications. We report on the design, fabrication, and characterization of a Ti/Au/Ti TES optimized for multimode fiber coupling in NV-center experiments. The device integrates a bi-layer anti-reflective coating optimized for 700 nm, the emission wavelength range of NV centers in which we are interested. Optical characterization in a cryogenic setup demonstrated an energy resolution below 2 eV and photon-number resolution capability. A dedicated calibration setup was used to evaluate the system detection efficiency (SDE), yielding0.85±0.020.85 \pm 0.020.85±0.02. These results confirm the suitability of large-area TESs for efficient multimode fiber coupling and highlight their potential for improving the performance of NV-center-based quantum sensing experiments.
Superconducting photon detectors have emerged as a powerful new option for detecting single photons. System detection efficiency that incorporates the quantum efficiency of the device and system losses is one of the most important single-photon detector performance metrics for quantum information applications. Superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs) are microcalorimeters that have the ability of distinguishing single photons with negligible dark counts. In addition, TESs are capable of directly measuring the photon number in a pulse of light. We have achieved near-unity system detection efficiency with TESs at particular wavelengths in the near-infrared by using multilayer structures that enhance the absorption of light into the active device material. We describe the design of the multilayer structure enabling high detection efficiency TESs including issues and requirements for obtaining detection efficiency values higher than 99 %. We describe the device fabrication and finally, show recent results of devices optimized for high detection efficiency using the multilayer structure.
Transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters are promising for application in the field of quantum information and quantum computation thanks to their outstanding single photon detection capabilities. Good energy resolution and photon number discrimination at visible and near-infrared wavelengths make them extensively used as single photon detectors. In this work we report details on the fabrication of Pd/Ti TESs deposited by e-beam evaporation on silicon nitride substrates. We use Pd as alternative to Au layer thanks to its stronger influence on the Ti layer, that allows to obtain the same temperature reduction with thinner layers. The transition temperatures Tcof the devices range from 83 to 110 mK with a transition width DeltaTc=0.5 mK. Thermal and electric characteristics of Pd/Ti TESs at different temperatures and its capability as single photon sensor are reported.