Physical mechanisms of timing jitter in photon detection by current-carrying superconducting nanowires

Sidorova, Mariia; Semenov, A.; Hübers, Heinz‐Wilhelm; Charaev, Ilya; Kuzmin, Artem; Doerner, Steffen; Siegel, M.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.96.184504

Cited by 51 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The FWHM of the distributions are 6.0 ± 0.2 ps and 10.6 ± 0.2 ps at 532 nm and 1550 nm wavelength, respectively. A non-gaussian tail is clearly observed, it becomes more apparent for long wavelengths and low bias currents, this behaviour has also been reported in many studies 16,22,23 , but its origin remains unclear. The jitter energy dependence is plotted in Fig.…”

supporting

confidence: 66%

Intrinsically-limited timing jitter in molybdenum silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

Caloz

Korzh

Ramirez

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Physics

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Recent progress in the development of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) has delivered excellent performances, and has had a great impact on a range of research fields. The timing jitter, which denotes the temporal resolution of the detection, is a crucial parameter for many applications. Despite extensive work since their apparition, the lowest jitter achievable with SNSPDs is still not clear, and the origin of the intrinsic limits is not fully understood. Understanding its intrinsic behaviour and limits is a mandatory step toward improvements. Here, we report our experimental study on the intrinsically-limited timing jitter in molybdenum silicide (MoSi) SNSPDs. We show that to reach intrinsic jitter, several detector properties such as the latching current and the kinetic inductance of the devices have to be understood. The dependence on the nanowire cross-section and the energy dependence of the intrinsic jitter are exhibited, and the origin of the limits are explicited. System timing jitter of 6.0 ps at 532 nm and 10.6 ps at 1550 nm photon wavelength have been obtained.Since their first demonstration 1 , superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as a key technology for optical quantum information processing 2 . Their low dark count rate, fast response time, small jitter, and high efficiency favours their use in various demanding quantum optics applications such as quantum key distribution 3 , quantum networking 4 , device-independent quantum information processing 5 , deep-space optical communication 6 , IR-imaging 7,8 , and integration in photonic circuits 9-11 .One advance in the SNSPD field has been the introduction of amorphous superconductors such as tungsten silicide (WSi) 12 and molybdenum silicide (MoSi) [13][14][15][16] . SNSPDs based on these materials currently have the highest reported system detection efficiencies (SDE) (93% for WSi 12 ). Their amorphous properties makes them materials of choice for applications where the film quality and yield are crucial, such as multi-mode coupled SNSPDs, or large arrays 17 .

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supporting

confidence: 66%

Intrinsically-limited timing jitter in molybdenum silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

Caloz

Korzh

Ramirez

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…We find, that τ d is drastically reduced as the current approaches to the depairing current and timing jitter may be as small as /k B T c (∼ 0.8 ps for superconductor with T c = 10K). We also show that the considered model with position-dependent response predicts stronger deviation of dependence of photon counts on the delay time (in the literature its is called as probability density function (PDF) [4] or instrument response function (IRF) [6,9]) from the Gaussian-like distribution than the hot belt model predicts [9]. We argue that it occurs due to photons absorbed near the edge of the strip which provide the largest delay time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Minimal Timing Jitter in Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors

Vodolazov

2019

Phys. Rev. Applied

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Using two-temperature model coupled with modified time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation we calculate the delay time τ d in appearance of growing normal domain in the current-biased superconducting strip after absorption of the single photon. We demonstrate that τ d depends on the place in the strip where photon is absorbed and monotonically decreases with increasing of the current. We argue, that the variation of τ d (timing jitter), connected either with position-dependent response or Fano fluctuations could be as small as the lowest relaxation time of the superconducting order parameter ∼ /kBTc (Tc is the critical temperature of the superconductor) when the current approaches the depairing current.PACS numbers:

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“…Since jitter has a noticeably asymmetric Gaussian shape in both figure 4(c) and (d), in the inset of both figures two-peaks fitting is shown. According to a previous study [24], in the deterministic regime where jitter is controlled by position-dependent detection threshold in straight parts of meanders, the main peak forms. And the lower side peak is caused in the probabilistic regime where the detector bends contribute.…”

Section: Jitter Measurement and Analysismentioning

confidence: 73%

Multimode-fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with high detection efficiency and time resolution

Jin¹,

Zadeh²,

Los³

et al. 2019

Appl. Opt.

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In the past decade superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) have gradually become an indispensable part of any demanding quantum optics experiment. Until now, most SNSPDs are coupled to single-mode fibers. SNSPDs coupled to multimode fibers have shown promising efficiencies but are yet to achieve high time resolution. For a number of applications ranging from quantum nano-photonics to bio-optics, high efficiency and high time-resolution are desired at the same time. In this paper, we demonstrate the role of polarization on the efficiency of multi-mode fiber coupled detectors, and show how it can be addressed. We fabricated high performance 20, 25 and 50 µm diameter detectors targeted for visible, near infrared, and telecom wavelengths. A custom-built setup was used to simulate realistic experiments with randomized modes in the fiber. We simultaneously achieved system efficiency >80% and time resolution <20 ps and made large detectors that offer outstanding performances.

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Physical mechanisms of timing jitter in photon detection by current-carrying superconducting nanowires

Cited by 51 publications

References 32 publications

Intrinsically-limited timing jitter in molybdenum silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

Intrinsically-limited timing jitter in molybdenum silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

Minimal Timing Jitter in Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors

Multimode-fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with high detection efficiency and time resolution

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