Scalable nanofabrication of high-quality <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><mml:mi>YBa</mml:mi></mml:math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><mml:msub><mml:mi/><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><mml:mi>Cu</mml:mi></mml:math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><mml:msub><mml:mi/><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:mrow></mml:math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><mml:msub><mml:mi/><mml:mrow><mml:mn>7</mml:mn><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mi>δ</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:math> nanowires for single-photon detectors
P. Amari, С. Н. Козлов, Eliana Recoba Pawlowski, Z. Velluire-Pellat, A. Jouan, F. Couëdo, C. Ulysse, J. Briático, Dimitri Roditchev, N. Bergeal, J. Lesueur, C. Feuillet-Palma
Abstract
The realization of superconducting single-photon detectors operating above the liquid-helium temperature is currently the focus of intense research efforts. Here, we present the fabrication of ultraclean encapsulated nanowires from commercially available thin films of $\mathrm{YBa}$${}_{2}$$\mathrm{Cu}$${}_{3}$$\mathrm{O}$${}_{7\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$ by high-energy oxygen-ion irradiation. The structured nanowires, ranging from 0.1 to $5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}$ in width, exhibit sharp resistive transitions to the superconducting state above 85 K. The $I$-$V$ characteristics reveal that the evolution from the superconducting to the normal state shows a large voltage jump in the volt range. This demonstrates that the entire nanowire transits---a prerequisite for the development of a hot spot upon absorption of a single photon. Our results pave the way for the fabrication of $\mathrm{YBa}$${}_{2}$$\mathrm{Cu}$${}_{3}$$\mathrm{O}$${}_{7\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$-based scalable superconducting single-photon-detection devices.