Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme
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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen
TT 11: Superconductivity: Poster
TT 11.24: Poster
Monday, March 17, 2025, 15:00–18:00, P4
Dynamical simulations of single photon detection in superconducting nanowires — •Carlos Alberto Diaz Lopez1, Joachim Ankerhold1, Björn Kubala1,2, and Ciprian Padurariu1 — 1Institute of Complex Quantum Systems, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany — 2German Aerospace Center (DLR), Ulm, Germany
We use a Python simulation package py-TDGL [1] based on modified Ginzburg-Landau theory [2] to simulate the dynamics of the superconducting condensate in a thin nanowire during the detection of a single-photon. The detection event is modeled phenomenologically as a hot-spot formation: the photon is modeled as an initially localized increase in the electronic temperature, with a Gaussian spatial profile that diffuses outwards while also dissipating in time. Our simulations successfully reproduce the characteristic time-dependent voltage peaks measured in superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, while providing an accompanying movie-like dynamics of the superconducting order parameter. We propose a method to enhance the prominence of the voltage peaks by optimizing the applied DC current and the intensity of an externally-applied perpendicular magnetic field, with the goal of enabling the detection of single-photons in a broader frequency spectrum.
[1] L.Bishop-Van Horn, Comput.Phys.Commun291, 108799 (2023).
[2] L. Kramer, R. J. Watts-Tobin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 40, 1041 (1978).
Keywords: superconducting nanowire single-photon detector; vortex dynamics; Ginzburg-Landau theory; hotspot formation