Nanoscale functionalized superconducting transport channels as photon detectors

Abstract

Single-photon detectors have typically consisted of macroscopic materials where both the photon absorption and transduction to an electrical signal happen. Newly proposed designs suggest that large arrays of nanoscale detectors could provide improved performance in addition to decoupling the absorption and transduction processes. Here we study the properties of such a detector consisting of a nanoscale superconducting (SC) transport channel functionalized by a photon absorber. We explore two detection mechanisms based on photo-induced electrostatic gating and magnetic effects. To this end we model the narrow channel as a one-dimensional atomic chain and use a self-consistent Keldysh-Nambu Green's function formalism to describe non-equilibrium effects and SC phenomena. We consider cases where the photon creates electrostatic and magnetic changes in the absorber, as well as devices with strong and weak coupling to the metal leads. Our results indicate that the most promising case is when the SC channel is weakly coupled to the leads and in the presence of a background magnetic field, where photo-excitation of a magnetic molecule can trigger a SC-to-normal transition in the channel that leads to a change in the device current several times larger than in the case of a normal-phase channel device.