Single-photon detection in the mid-infrared up to 10 <i>μ</i>m wavelength using tungsten silicide superconducting nanowire detectors

Abstract

We developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors based on tungsten silicide, which show saturated internal detection efficiency up to a wavelength of 10 <i>μ</i>m. These detectors are promising for applications in the mid-infrared requiring sub-nanosecond timing, ultra-high gain stability, low dark counts, and high efficiency, such as chemical sensing, LIDAR, dark matter searches, and exoplanet spectroscopy.