Single-photon detection using magnesium diboride superconducting nanowires

We fabricated 10 nm thick MgB2 nanowires with a width down to 100 nm using the liftoff process. The I-V characteristics of the nanowire show hysteresis and a sharp voltage jump at I-c. Though a 150 nm wide nanowire exhibits the capacity for detecting a single photon at 405 nm wavelength, the nanowire is too wide to detect a single photon at 1560 nm. A 100 nm wide nanowire exhibits the capacity for detecting single photons in the 405-1560 nm wavelength range. This indicates a possible application of MgB2 as a high-performance superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3518723]