Single-photon detection using high-temperature superconductors

Abstract

The detection of individual quanta of light is important for quantum computation, fluorescence lifetime imaging, single-molecule detection, remote sensing, correlation spectroscopy, and more. Thanks to their broadband operation, high detection efficiency, exceptional signal-to-noise ratio, and fast recovery times, superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have become a critical component in these applications. The operation of SNSPDs based on conventional superconductors, which have a low critical temperature ($T_c$), requires costly and bulky cryocoolers. This motivated exploration of other superconducting materials with higher $T_c$ that would enable single-photon detection at elevated temperatures, yet this task has proven exceedingly difficult. Here we show that with proper processing, high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors can meet this challenge. We fabricated superconducting nanowires (SNWs) out of thin flakes of Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ and La${}_{1.55}$Sr${}_{0.45}$CuO${}_4$/La${}_2$CuO${}_4$ (LSCO-LCO) bilayer films and demonstrated their single-photon response up to $25$ and $8$ K, respectively. The single-photon operation is revealed through the linear scaling of the photon count rate (PCR) on the radiation power. Both of our cuprate-based SNSPDs exhibited single-photon sensitivity at the technologically-important $1.5$ $\mu$m telecommunications wavelength. Our work expands the family of superconducting materials for SNSPD technology, opens the prospects of raising the temperature ceiling, and raises important questions about the underlying mechanisms of single-photon detection by unconventional superconductors.

8 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors: physics and applications
• High-temperature interface superconductivity between metallic and insulating cuprates
• How good must single photon sources and detectors be for efficient linear optical quantum computation?
• Optical Nanoscopy of High-Tc Cuprate Nano-Constriction Devices Patterned by Helium Ion Beams

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• Ab initio modeling of nonequilibrium dynamics in superconducting detectors and qubits
• Magnetic-field dependent vortex dynamics and critical currents in superconducting microwires with regular large-area perforation by pinholes
• Low-dimensional platforms for single photon detection