Kinetic-inductance-limited reset time of superconducting nanowire photon counters

Andrew J. Kerman; Eric A. Dauler; William E. Keicher; Joel K. W. Yang; Karl K. Berggren; G. Gol'tsman; B. Voronov

doi:10.1063/1.2183810

Kinetic-inductance-limited reset time of superconducting nanowire photon counters

Instrumentation and Detectors 2009-11-11 v1 Optics

Authors: Andrew J. Kerman , Eric A. Dauler , William E. Keicher , Joel K. W. Yang , Karl K. Berggren , G. Gol'tsman , B. Voronov

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Abstract

We investigate the recovery of superconducting NbN-nanowire photon counters after detection of an optical pulse at a wavelength of 1550 nm, and present a model that quantitatively accounts for our observations. The reset time is found to be limited by the large kinetic inductance of these nanowires, which forces a tradeoff between counting rate and either detection efficiency or active area. Devices of usable size and high detection efficiency are found to have reset times orders of magnitude longer than their intrinsic photoresponse time.

Keywords

superconducting nanowire photon counter kinetic inductance reset time NbN counting rate

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@article{arxiv.physics/0510238,
  title  = {Kinetic-inductance-limited reset time of superconducting nanowire photon counters},
  author = {Andrew J. Kerman and Eric A. Dauler and William E. Keicher and Joel K. W. Yang and Karl K. Berggren and G. Gol'tsman and B. Voronov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0510238},
  year   = {2009}
}

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Submitted to Applied Physics Letters

Kinetic-inductance-limited reset time of superconducting nanowire photon counters

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