Effects of Helium Ion Exposure on the Single-Photon Sensitivity of MgB$_{2}$ and NbN Detectors

Journal article, 2024

Improving the scalability, reproducibility, and operating temperature of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) has been a major research goal since the devices were first proposed. The recent innovation of helium-ion irradiation as a post-processing technique for SNSPDs could enable high detection efficiencies to be more easily reproducible, but is still poorly understood. Additionally, fabricating detectors at micron-wide scales from high-T$_{\mathrm{C}}$ materials could improve scalability and operating temperature, respectively. At the same time, fabrication of successful devices in wide wires and from higher-T$_{\mathrm{C}}$ materials like magnesium diboride has proven challenging. In this work, we compare helium ion irradiation in niobium nitride and magnesium diboride detectors with different material stacks in order to better understand the mechanics of irradiation and practical implications of encapsulating layers on effective dose. We examine the effects of experimental effective dose tests and compare these results to the damage per ion predicted by simulations in corresponding material stacks. In both materials, irradiation results in an increase in count rate, though for niobium nitride this increase has not fully saturated even at the highest tested dose of $2.6\times 10^{17}$ ions/cm$^{2}$, while for resist-encapsulated magnesium diboride even the lowest tested dose of $1\times 10^{15}$ ions/cm$^{2}$ appears higher than optimal. Our results demonstrate the general applicability of helium ion irradiation to vastly different devices and material stacks, albeit with differing optimal doses, and show the reproducibility and effectiveness of this post-processing technique in significantly improving SNSPD efficiency.