Infrared wavelength-dependent optical characterization of NbN nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors

We report optical characterization of NbN nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors as a function of wavelength in the near infrared. System detection efficiency decreases from ∼6% at 1.15 µm to ∼2% at 1.72 µm, while timing jitter remains relatively constant at ∼60 ps full-width-half-maximum over the range 0.7–2.0 µm. We further demonstrate the capabilities of this detector with a time-correlated single-photon counting measurement of photoluminescence from a semiconductor sample emitting at 1.65 µm.