Ability to detect individual photons in the mid-ir is crucial for many astronomical applications and detector technology is the vital part of instrumentation for future space missions. The search for bio signatures through transiting exoplanet spectroscopy requires an array of detectors covering the spectral range of 2.8 to 20μm. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are highly efficient and low-noise devices ideal for counting and observing low levels of photons. They have near-perfect quantum efficiency and can be combined into arrays for imaging. Here, we report on the development of 36-pixel mid-infrared SNSPD arrays. Detectors are based on optimised ultrathin NbN films, which are grown by both magnetron sputtering and atomic layer deposition (ALD) techniques. For characterisation we assembled a setup based on tuneable optical parametric oscillator (OPO) source to provide picosecond long pulses in the 1.5 to 10μm spectral region. This work provides an analysis of the electrical, optical, and temporal performance of individual pixels as well as information on pixel performance uniformity across the array.
This conference presentation was prepared for the Quantum Technology: Driving Commercialisation of an Enabling Science III conference at SPIE Photonex, 2022.
The phenomenon of dark counts in nanostripes of different superconductor systems such as high-temperature superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-x and superconductor/ferromagnet hybrids consisting of either NbN/NiCu or YBa2Cu3O7- x/L0.7Sr0.3MnO3 bilayers have been investigated. For NbN/NiCu the rate of dark-count transients have been reduced with respect to pure NbN nanostripes and the events were dominated by a single vortex entry from the edge of the stripe. In the case of nanostripes based on YBa2Cu3O7-x, we have found that thermal activation of vortices was also, apparently, responsible for triggering dark-count signals.
Nanostripes of hybrid superconductor/ferromagnetic (S/F) NbN/NiCu bilayers and pure superconducting NbN nanostripes have been investigated in dark count experiments. Presence of a ferromagnetic layer influences the superconducting properties of the S/F bilayer, such as the critical current density and the transient photoresponse. The observed significant decrease of the dark-count rate is discussed in terms of vortex-related fluctuation models to shed more light in the intriguing question of the basic mechanism responsible for dark counts in superconducting nanostripe single photon detectors.
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