Large active-area superconducting microwire detector array with single-photon sensitivity in the near-infrared

Abstract

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) are the highest-performing technology for time-resolved single-photon counting from the UV to the near-infrared. The recent discovery of single-photon sensitivity in micrometer-scale superconducting wires is a promising pathway to explore for large active area devices with application to dark matter searches and fundamental physics experiments. We present 8-pixel $1m{m}^2$ superconducting microwire single photon detectors (SMSPDs) with $1\mu \mathrm{m}$-wide wires fabricated from WSi and MoSi films of various stoichiometries using electron-beam and optical lithography. Devices made from all materials and fabrication techniques show saturated internal detection efficiency at 1064 nm in at least one pixel, and the best performing device made from silicon-rich WSi shows single-photon sensitivity in all 8 pixels and saturated internal detection efficiency in 6/8 pixels. This detector is the largest reported active-area SMSPD or SNSPD with near-IR sensitivity published to date, and the first report of an SMSPD array. By further optimizing the photolithography techniques presented in this work, a viable pathway exists to realize larger devices with $c{m}^2$-scale active area and beyond.

References in corpus (11)

• Quantum Storage of Photonic Entanglement in a Crystal
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• Different single photon response of wide and narrow superconducting MoSi strips
• Large active-area superconducting microwire detector array with single-photon sensitivity in the near-infrared
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• Broadband polarization insensitivity and high detection efficiency in high-fill-factor superconducting microwire single-photon detectors
• Laser-lithographically written micron-wide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors
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• How Silicon and Boron Dopants Govern the Cryogenic Scintillation Properties of N-type GaAs

Cited by in corpus (8)

• An SNSPD-based detector system for NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications project
• Large active-area superconducting microwire detector array with single-photon sensitivity in the near-infrared
• Single photon detection up to 2 um in pair of parallel microstrips based on NbRe ultrathin films
• High Energy Particle Detection with Large Area Superconducting Microwire Array
• Temperature-Dependent Characterization of Large-Area Superconducting Microwire Array with Single-Photon Sensitivity in the Near-Infrared
• Dark Matter Haloscope with a Disordered Dielectric Absorber
• Growth Optimization of MoSi Thin Film and Measurement of Transport Critical Current Density of its Meander Structure
• Towards High-Efficiency Particle Detection Using Superconducting Microwire Arrays