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Quasiparticle recombination in hotspots in superconducting current-carrying nanowires
Published
Author(s)
Alex Kozorezov, Colin Lambert, Francesco Marsili, Martin Stevens, Varun Verma, Jeffrey A. Stern, Rob Horansky, Shellee D. Dyer, Shannon Duff, David P. Pappas, Adriana Lita, Matthew D. Shaw, Richard Mirin, Sae Woo Nam
Abstract
We describe a kinetic model of recombination of nonequilibrium quasiparticles generated by single photon absorption in superconducting current-carrying nanowires. The model is developed to interpret two-photon detection experiments in which a single photon does not possess sufficient energy for breaking superconductivity at a fixed low bias current. We show that quasiparticle self-recombination in relaxing hotspots dominates diffusion expansion effects and explains the observed strong bias current, wavelength, and temperature dependencies of hotspot relaxation in tungsten silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors.
Kozorezov, A.
, Lambert, C.
, Marsili, F.
, Stevens, M.
, Verma, V.
, Stern, J.
, Horansky, R.
, Dyer, S.
, Duff, S.
, Pappas, D.
, Lita, A.
, Shaw, M.
, Mirin, R.
and Nam, S.
(2015),
Quasiparticle recombination in hotspots in superconducting current-carrying nanowires, Physical Review B
(Accessed October 2, 2025)