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arXiv · 1303.4546

Effect of the wire width on the intrinsic detection efficiency of superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors

Abstract

Thorough spectral study of the intrinsic single-photon detection efficiency in superconducting TaN and NbN nanowires with different widths shows that the experimental cut-off in the efficiency at near-infrared wavelengths is most likely caused by the local deficiency of Cooper pairs available for current transport. For both materials the reciprocal cut-off wavelength scales with the wire width whereas the scaling factor quantitatively agrees with the hot-spot detection models. Comparison of the experimental data with vortex-assisted detection scenarios shows that these models predict a stronger dependence of the cut-off wavelength on the wire width.

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R. Lusche, A. Semenov, H. -W. Huebers, K. Ilin, M. Siegel, Y. Korneeva, A. Trifonov, A. Korneev, G. Goltsman, D. Vodolazov. 2013-03-19. Effect of the wire width on the intrinsic detection efficiency of superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4891105

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