Investigation of Superconducting Molybdenum Silicide Nanostrips and Microstrips for Single Photon Detectors

Abstract

Superconducting nanostrip single photon detectors have emerged as the highest performing single-photon detectors; however, the possibility to use superconducting microstrip as single photon detectors is very appealing both to use them as larger areas detectors and for an easier technology in the manufacturing. The aim of this work is to test the photoresponse in liquid helium dewar of 9 nm thick MoSi covered with a very thin (2 nm) layer of Al, in two different configurations: nanomeanders and microstrips. We demonstrate that MoSi/Al microstrips can work as photodetectors also at T = 4.2 K. We also compare the dark count rate of the microstrip and the nanowire, confirming the lower noise for the microstrips also at 4.2 K.