Multifunctional Superconducting Nanowire Quantum Sensors

Benjamin J. Lawrie, Claire E. Marvinney, Yun Yi Pai, Matthew A. Feldman, Jie Zhang, Aaron J. Miller, Chengyun Hua, Eugene Dumitrescu, Gábor B. Halász

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) offer high-quantum-efficiency and low-dark-count-rate single-photon detection. In a growing number of cases, large magnetic fields are being incorporated into quantum microscopes, nanophotonic devices, and sensors for nuclear and high-energy physics that rely on SNSPDs, but superconducting devices generally perform poorly in large magnetic fields. Here, we demonstrate robust performance of amorphous SNSPDs in magnetic fields of up to ±6 T with a negligible dark-count rate and unchanged quantum efficiency at typical bias currents. Critically, we also show that the SNSPD can be used as a magnetometer with a sensitivity of better than 100μT/Hz and as a thermometer with a sensitivity of 20μK/Hz at 1 K. Thus, a single-photon detector integrated into a quantum device can be used as a multifunctional quantum sensor capable of describing the temperature and magnetic field on chip simply by varying the bias current to change the operating modality from single-photon detection to thermometry or magnetometry.

Original languageEnglish
Article number064059
JournalPhysical Review Applied
Volume16
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021

Funding

This research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. Postdoctoral (CEM) research support was provided by the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, administered by Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Student (M.A.F., B.E.L.) research support was provided by the Department of Defense through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) and by the DOE Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) program. This manuscript has been coauthored by employees of UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive paid-up irrevocable worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan .

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