An ultra-fast superconducting Nb nanowire single-photon detector for soft x-rays

Although superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are well studied regarding the detection of infrared/optical photons and keV-molecules, no studies on continuous x-ray photon counting by thick-film detectors have been reported so far. We fabricated a 100 nm thick niobium x-ray SNSPD (an X-SNSPD) and studied its detection capability of photons with keV-energies in continuous mode. The detector is capable to detect photons even at reduced bias currents of 0.4%, which is in sharp contrast to optical thin-film SNSPDs. No dark counts were recorded in extended measurement periods. Strikingly, the signal amplitude distribution depends significantly on the photon energy spectrum. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4759046]