Rights statement: © 2015 American Physical Society
Final published version, 2.47 MB, PDF document
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
| Article number | 064504 |
|---|---|
| <mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 1/08/2015 |
| <mark>Journal</mark> | Physical review B |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Volume | 92 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Publication Status | Published |
| <mark>Original language</mark> | English |
We describe a kinetic model of recombination of nonequilibrium quasiparticles generated by single photon absorption in superconducting current-carrying nanowires. The model is developed to interpret two-photon detection experiments in which a single photon does not possess sufficient energy for breaking superconductivity at a fixed low bias current. We show that quasiparticle self-recombination in relaxing hotspots dominates diffusion expansion effects and explains the observed strong bias current, wavelength, and temperature dependencies of hotspot relaxation in tungsten silicide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors.