Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors for Exoplanet Spectroscopy in the Mid-Infrared

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as the highest-performing single-photon detectors from the UV to the mid-infrared. These detectors combine very high efficiencies (> 90% in the infrared at 1.55 um), ultralow jitter (~100 ps or less), zero readout noise, and very low dark count rates ( < 10-4 Hz) . Recently, we have developed SNSPDs operating in the mid-infrared from 2 - 7 um. Basic models of the physics of the detection process suggest that by reducing the width of the nanowires to ~ 10 - 20 nm, and tuning the composition of the superconducting material, one may be able to demonstrate single-photon detection at wavelengths extending to 60 um. In addition, recently-developed multiplexing techniques should allow the fabrication of small arrays consisting of ~ 1000 pixels or more, which could potentially be useful for spectroscopy and imaging. The primary advantages of using SNSPDs in this wavelength range are high stability of detector gain as a function of temperature and bias current, true single-photon sensitivity, zero readout noise, and extremely low dark count rate. In addition, SNSPDs would not suffer from many of the problems inherent with arrays of currently used blocked impurity band (BIB) detectors such as reset anomaly, last-frame effect, droop, drift, multiplexer glow, and latent images. One of the many goals of the Origins Space Telescope (OST) is the study of exoplanets. This study makes up roughly one-third of the science case for OST. In particular, part of OST's mission is the detection of biosignatures such as ozone, nitrous oxide, and methane in the atmospheres of Earth-sized planets transiting the habitable-zones of nearby stars. The spectroscopy of exoplanet atmospheres requires mid-infrared detector arrays combining high stability over time (a few ppm over several hours), high sensitivity (ideally single-photon sensitive), high system efficiency, and low noise. We propose to develop kilopixel-scale arrays consisting of single-photon-sensitive superconducting nanowire detectors that are sensitive in the range of 6 - 20 um wavelengths that would meet the requirements for any future instruments directed towards exoplanet transit spectroscopy, for example the mid-infrared spectrometer and coronagraph (MISC) planned for the Origins Space Telescope. As outlined above, the excellent stability and single-photon sensitivity of these detectors would be ideal for such an application requiring data collection over the course of hundreds of transits of an exoplanet across its parent star, each of which can last several hours or longer.

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