Electrical characterization of superconducting single-photon detectors

Superconducting meanders of NbN thin films have applications as single-photon detectors with high sensitivity in the IR region. We report here a detailed anal. of the elec. characteristics of such meanders, by studying structures where each wire of the meander is sep. contacted. The effect of heating on the superconducting-normal transition of adjacent stripes is evidenced. Moreover, the anal. of the switching current distribution of each wire highlights the high-crit. current uniformity achieved by our meander process. [on SciFinder (R)]