Patent attributes
The invention provides a single-photon detector that includes a superconducting wire made from a high quality and uniform superconducting film with a higher critical temperature. A reflector or a multilayered reflector with high reflectivity, preferably a nitride-based distributed Bragg reflector, is provided to reflect an incident light to the superconducting wire. A surface-plasmon wavelength-selective surface may be further provided above the superconducting wire to resonantly transmits the incident light within a selective passband, making the single-photon detector operable in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelength bands. In addition, a large area of superconducting film with high level of uniformity is grown to achieve the up scaling of the single-photon detector and a single-photon detector array.
