In the present study, random current fluctuations measured at different temperatures and for different illumination levels are used to understand the charge carrier kinetics in methylammonium lead iodide CH3NH3PbI3‐based perovskite solar cells. A model, combining trapping/detrapping, recombination mechanisms, and electron–phonon scattering, is formulated evidencing how the presence of shallow and deeper band tail states influences the solar cell recombination losses. At low temperatures, the observed cascade capture process indicates that the trapping of the charge carriers by shallow defects is phonon assisted directly followed by their recombination. By increasing the temperature, a phase modification of the CH3NH3PbI3 absorber layer occurs and for temperatures above the phase transition at about 160 K the capture of the charge carrier takes place in two steps. The electron is first captured by a shallow defect and then it can be either emitted or thermalize down to a deeper band tail state and recombines subsequently. This result reveals that in perovskite solar cells the recombination kinetics is strongly influenced by the electron–phonon interactions. A clear correlation between the morphological structure of the perovskite grains, the energy disorder of the defect states, and the device performance is demonstrated.

We study the reset dynamics of niobium ��Nb�� superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors ��SNSPDs�� using experimental measurements and numerical simulations. The numerical simulations of the detection dynamics agree well with experimental measurements, using independently determined parameters in the simulations. We find that if the photon-induced hotspot cools too slowly, the device will latch into a dc resistive state. To avoid latching, the time for the hotspot to cool must be short compared to the inductive time constant that governs the resetting of the current in the device after hotspot formation. From simulations of the energy relaxation process, we find that the hotspot cooling time is determined primarily by the temperature-dependent electron-phonon inelastic time. Latching prevents reset and precludes subsequent photon detection. Fast resetting to the superconducting state is, therefore, essential, and we demonstrate experimentally how this is achieved. We compare our results to studies of reset and latching in niobium nitride SNSPDs

We have realized superconducting single photon detectors with reduced inductance and increased signal pulse amplitude. The detectors are based on a parallel connection of ultrathin NbN nanowires with a common bias inductance. When properly biased, an absorbed photon induces a cascade switch of all the parallel wires generating a signal pulse amplitude of 2 mV. The parallel wire configuration lowers the detector inductance and reduces the response time well below 1 ns

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have been realized using an innovative parallel wire configuration. This configuration allows, at the same time, a large detection area and a fast response, with the additional advantage of large signal amplitudes. The detectors have been thoroughly characterized in terms of signal properties (amplitude, risetime and falltime), detector operation (latching and not latching) and quantum efficiency (at 850 nm). It has been shown that the parallel SNSPD is able to provide significantly higher maximum count rates for large area SNSPDs than meandered SNSPDs. Through a proper parallel wire configuration the increase in maximum count rate can be obtained without latching problems.

A theoretical model, combining trapping/detrapping and recombination mechanisms, is formulated to explain the origin of random current fluctuations in silicon-based solar cells. In this framework, the comparison between dark and photo-induced noise allows the determination of important electronic parameters of the defect states. A detailed analysis of the electric noise, at different temperatures and for different illumination levels, is reported for crystalline silicon-based solar cells, in the pristine form and after artificial degradation with high energy protons. The evolution of the dominating defect properties is studied through noise spectroscopy.