GHz Superconducting Single-Photon Detectors for Dark Matter Search

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advancements in superconducting single-photon detectors operating below 100 GHz, focusing on two tunable sensors suitable for dark matter axion searches via microwave light shining through walls experiments.

Contribution

It introduces two novel superconducting sensors, nano-TES and JES, with high frequency resolution, tailored for dark matter detection experiments.

Findings

Nano-TES achieves ~100 GHz frequency resolution.

JES achieves ~2 GHz frequency resolution.

Sensors are suitable for microwave light shining through walls experiments.

Abstract

The composition of dark matter is one of the puzzling topics in astrophysics. To address this issue, several experiments searching for the existence of axions have been designed, built and realized in the last twenty years. Among all the others, light shining through walls experiments promise to push the exclusion limits to lower energies. For this reason, effort is put for the development of single-photon detectors operating at frequencies $<100$ GHz. Here, we review recent advancements in superconducting single-photon detection. In particular, we present two sensors based on one-dimensional Josephson junctions with the capability to be in situ tuned by simple current bias: the nanoscale transition edge sensor (nano-TES) and the Josephson escape sensor (JES). These two sensors are the ideal candidates for the realization of microwave light shining through walls (LSW) experiments, since they show unprecedented frequency resolutions of about 100 GHz and 2 GHz for the nano-TES and JES, respectively.