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Experimental investigation of the detection mechanism in WSi nanowire superconducting single photon detectors

Published

Author(s)

Rosalinda Gaudio, Jelmer J. Renema, Zili Zhou, Varun Verma, Jeff Shainline, Martin Stevens, Richard Mirin, Sae Woo Nam, Martin P. van Exter, Michiel J. de Dood, Andrea Fiore

Abstract

We use quantum detector tomography to investigate the detection mechanism in WSi nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs). To this purpose, we fabricated a 250 nm wide and 250 nm long WSi nanowire and measured its response to impinging photons with wavelengths ranging from λ = 900 nm to λ = 1650 nm. The tomographically resolved multiphoton response of the detector shows that the detector response depends on the total excitation energy only. Moreover, for excitation energies above 0.8eV the current energy relation is linear, similar to what was observed in NbN nanowires, whereas the current-energy relation deviates from linear behaviour for total energies below 0.8eV.
Citation
Applied Physics Letters
Volume
109
Issue
3

Keywords

Single-photon detectors, superconductivity, detector tomography, quantum optics

Citation

Gaudio, R. , Renema, J. , Zhou, Z. , Verma, V. , Shainline, J. , Stevens, M. , Mirin, R. , Nam, S. , van Exter, M. , de Dood, M. and Fiore, A. (2016), Experimental investigation of the detection mechanism in WSi nanowire superconducting single photon detectors, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4958687 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created July 17, 2016, Updated October 12, 2021