Quasiparticle recombination in hotspots in superconducting current-carrying nanowires

A. G. Kozorezov, C. Lambert, F. Marsili, M. J. Stevens, V. B. Verma, J. A. Stern, R. Horansky, S. Dyer, S. Duff, D. P. Pappas, A. Lita, M. D. Shaw, R. P. Mirin, and Sae Woo Nam

Phys. Rev. B 92, 064504 – Published 6 August 2015

Abstract

We describe a kinetic model of recombination of nonequilibrium quasiparticles generated by single photon absorption in superconducting current-carrying nanowires. The model is developed to interpret two-photon detection experiments in which a single photon does not possess sufficient energy for breaking superconductivity at a fixed low bias current. We show that quasiparticle self-recombination in relaxing hotspots dominates diffusion expansion effects and explains the observed strong bias current, wavelength, and temperature dependencies of hotspot relaxation in tungsten silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors.

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Received 7 May 2015
Revised 9 July 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.064504

Authors & Affiliations

A. G. Kozorezov¹, C. Lambert¹, F. Marsili², M. J. Stevens³, V. B. Verma³, J. A. Stern², R. Horansky³, S. Dyer³, S. Duff³, D. P. Pappas³, A. Lita³, M. D. Shaw², R. P. Mirin³, and Sae Woo Nam³

¹Department of Physics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
²Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, California 91109, USA
³National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA

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Vol. 92, Iss. 6 — 1 August 2015

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