Origin of intrinsic dark count in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

Origin of intrinsic dark count in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

The origin of the decoherence in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, the so-called dark count, was investigated. We measured the direct-current characteristics and bias-current dependencies of the dark count rate in a wide range of temperatures from 0.5K to 4.0K, and analyzed the resul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters Vol. 99; no. 16; pp. 161105 - 161105-3
Main Authors: Yamashita, T., Miki, S., Makise, K., Qiu, W., Terai, H., Fujiwara, M., Sasaki, M., Wang, Z.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: American Institute of Physics 17-10-2011
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The origin of the decoherence in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, the so-called dark count, was investigated. We measured the direct-current characteristics and bias-current dependencies of the dark count rate in a wide range of temperatures from 0.5K to 4.0K, and analyzed the results by theoretical models of thermal fluctuations of vortices. Our results indicate that the current-assisted unbinding of vortex-antivortex pairs is the dominant origin of the dark count.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.3652908