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Charaev I, Bandurin DA, Bollinger AT, Phinney IY, Drozdov I, Colangelo M, Butters BA, Taniguchi T, Watanabe K, He X, Medeiros O, Božović I, Jarillo-Herrero P, Berggren KK. Single-photon detection using high-temperature superconductors. Nat Nanotechnol 2023; 18:343-349. [PMID: 36941357 DOI: 10.1038/s41565-023-01325-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The detection of individual quanta of light is important for quantum communication, fluorescence lifetime imaging, remote sensing and more. Due to their high detection efficiency, exceptional signal-to-noise ratio and fast recovery times, superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have become a critical component in these applications. However, the operation of conventional SNSPDs requires costly cryocoolers. Here we report the fabrication of two types of high-temperature superconducting nanowires. We observe linear scaling of the photon count rate on the radiation power at the telecommunications wavelength of 1.5 μm and thereby reveal single-photon operation. SNSPDs made from thin flakes of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ exhibit a single-photon response up to 25 K, and for SNSPDs from La1.55Sr0.45CuO4/La2CuO4 bilayer films, this response is observed up to 8 K. While the underlying detection mechanism is not fully understood yet, our work expands the family of materials for SNSPD technology beyond the liquid helium temperature limit and suggests that even higher operation temperatures may be reached using other high-temperature superconductors.
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Affiliation(s)
- I Charaev
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - D A Bandurin
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
| | | | - I Y Phinney
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - I Drozdov
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA
| | - M Colangelo
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - B A Butters
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - T Taniguchi
- International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute of Material Science, Tsukuba, Japan
| | - K Watanabe
- Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute of Material Science, Tsukuba, Japan
| | - X He
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - O Medeiros
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - I Božović
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | | | - K K Berggren
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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Toomey E, Onen M, Colangelo M, Butters BA, McCaughan AN, Berggren KK. Bridging the Gap Between Nanowires and Josephson Junctions: A Superconducting Device Based on Controlled Fluxon Transfer. Phys Rev Appl 2019; 11:10.1103/physrevapplied.11.034006. [PMID: 32166099 PMCID: PMC7067296 DOI: 10.1103/physrevapplied.11.034006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The basis for superconducting electronics can broadly be divided between two technologies: the Josephson junction and the superconducting nanowire. While the Josephson junction (JJ) remains the dominant technology due to its high speed and low power dissipation, recently proposed nanowire devices offer improvements such as gain, high fanout, and compatibility with CMOS circuits. Despite these benefits, nanowire-based electronics have largely been limited to binary operations, with devices switching between the superconducting state and a high-impedance resistive state dominated by uncontrolled hotspot dynamics. Unlike the JJ, they cannot increment an output through successive switching and their operation speeds are limited by their slow thermal-reset times. Thus, there is a need for an intermediate device with the interfacing capabilities of a nanowire but a faster, moderated response allowing for modulation of the output. We present a nanowire device based on controlled fluxon transport. We show that the device is capable of responding proportionally to the strength of its input, unlike other nanowire technologies. The device can be operated to produce a multilevel output with distinguishable states, the number of which can be tuned by circuit parameters. Agreement between experimental results and electrothermal circuit simulations demonstrates that the device is classical and may be readily engineered for applications including use as a multilevel memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- E. Toomey
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - M. Onen
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - M. Colangelo
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - B. A. Butters
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - A. N. McCaughan
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA
| | - K. K. Berggren
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
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