Performance of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors in strong magnetic fields

ORAL

Abstract

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPD) have found applications in many fields, including nanophotonics, quantum communication and computing. There is potential in applications in high energy physics, but operation in high magnetic fields is required.
We study the performance of SNSPDs in high magnetic fields by implementing superconducting type-II materials with high upper critical fields and critical currents. Using the recently developed ion-beam assisted sputtering method[1], we fabricate Niobium Nitride SNSPDs on non-epitaxial substrates using a two-step process, and perform optoelectronic characterization across a wide range of magnetic fields. We demonstrate performance with zero dark counts and saturated internal quantum efficiency in fields of up to 8 T for visible wavelength photons with no need for changes to the common meander geometry[2].

[1] doi:10.1063/1.5031904
[2] arXiv:1907.13059

*This work was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Offices of Nuclear Physics, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Contract # DE-AC02-06CH11357.
A portion of this work was conducted at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science (DOE-OS) user facility.

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Presenters

  • Tomas Polakovic

    • Physics Division, Argonne Natl Lab

Authors

  • Tomas Polakovic

    • Physics Division, Argonne Natl Lab

  • Volodymyr Yefremenko

    • High Energy Physics Division, Argonne Natl Lab

  • john pearson

    • Argonne National Lab
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne Natl Lab
    • Argonne Natl Lab

  • Whitney Armstrong

    • Physics Division, Argonne Natl Lab

  • Zein-Eddine Meziani

    • Physics Division, Argonne Natl Lab

  • Kawtar Hafidi

    • Physics Division, Argonne Natl Lab

  • Goran Karapetrov

    • Physics and Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University
    • Department of Physics & Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University
    • Physics and Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel Univiversity

  • Valentyn Novosad

    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Materials Science Division & Physics Division, Argonne Natl Lab