Graphene-Based Josephson-Junction Single-Photon Detector

• Main Authors: Lee, Gil-Ho (Author), Crossno, Jesse (Author), Ohki, Thomas A. (Author), Kim, Philip (Author), Fong, Kin Chung (Author), Walsh, Evan Daniel (Contributor), Efetov, Dmitri (Contributor), Heuck, Mikkel (Contributor), Englund, Dirk R. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2018-02-12T18:11:13Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We propose to use graphene-based Josephson junctions (GJJs) to detect single photons in a wide electromagnetic spectrum from visible to radio frequencies. Our approach takes advantage of the exceptionally low electronic heat capacity of monolayer graphene and its constricted thermal conductance to its phonon degrees of freedom. Such a system could provide high-sensitivity photon detection required for research areas including quantum information processing and radio astronomy. As an example, we present our device concepts for GJJ single-photon detectors in both the microwave and infrared regimes. The dark count rate and intrinsic quantum efficiency are computed based on parameters from a measured GJJ, demonstrating feasibility within existing technologies.
United States. Office of Naval Research (N00014-14-1- 0349)