Minimal Timing Jitter in Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Petectors

摘要： Using a two-temperature model coupled with the modified time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation, we calculate the delay time τd in the appearance of a growing normal domain in the current-biased superconducting strip after absorption of the single photon. We demonstrate that τd depends on the place in the strip where the photon is absorbed and monotonically decreases with an increasing current. We argue that the variation of τd (timing jitter), connected either with position-dependent response or Fano fluctuations, could be as small as the lowest relaxation time of the superconducting order parameter, approximately ?/kBTc (Tc is the critical temperature of the superconductor), when the current approaches the depairing current.