SIST EN IEC 61788-22-3:2022

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST EN IEC 61788-22-3:2022
01-december-2022
Superprevodnost - 22-3. del: Superprevodni tračni fotonski detektor -
Brezfotonska pogostost (IEC 61788-22-3:2022)
Superconductivity - Part 22-3: Superconducting strip photon detector - Dark count rate
(IEC 61788-22-3:2022)
Supraleitfähigkeit – Teil 22-3: Supraleitender Streifen-Photonendetektor - Dunkelzählrate
(IEC 61788-22-3:2022)
Supraconductivité - Partie 22-3: Détecteur de photons à bande supraconductrice - Taux
de comptage en obscurité (IEC 61788-22-3:2022)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN IEC 61788-22-3:2022
ICS:
17.220.20 Merjenje električnih in Measurement of electrical
magnetnih veličin and magnetic quantities
29.050 Superprevodnost in prevodni Superconductivity and
materiali conducting materials
SIST EN IEC 61788-22-3:2022 en
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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SIST EN IEC 61788-22-3:2022


EUROPEAN STANDARD EN IEC 61788-22-3

NORME EUROPÉENNE

EUROPÄISCHE NORM September 2022
ICS 29.050

English Version
Superconductivity - Part 22-3: Superconducting strip photon
detector - Dark count rate
(IEC 61788-22-3:2022)
Supraconductivité - Partie 22-3: Détecteur de photons à Supraleitfähigkeit - Teil 22-3: Supraleitender Streifen-
bande supraconductrice - Taux de comptage en obscurité Photonendetektor - Dunkelzählrate
(IEC 61788-22-3:2022) (IEC 61788-22-3:2022)
This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 2022-09-23. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC
Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.
Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC
Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation
under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the
same status as the official versions.
CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Türkiye and the United Kingdom.


European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization
Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique
Europäisches Komitee für Elektrotechnische Normung
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2022 CENELEC All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved worldwide for CENELEC Members.
 Ref. No. EN IEC 61788-22-3:2022 E

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EN IEC 61788-22-3:2022 (E)
European foreword
The text of document 90/489/FDIS, future edition 1 of IEC 61788-22-3, prepared by IEC/TC 90
"Superconductivity" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as
EN IEC 61788-22-3:2022.
The following dates are fixed:
• latest date by which the document has to be implemented at national (dop) 2023-06-23
level by publication of an identical national standard or by endorsement
• latest date by which the national standards conflicting with the (dow) 2025-09-23
document have to be withdrawn

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.
Endorsement notice
The text of the International Standard IEC 61788-22-3:2022 was approved by CENELEC as a
European Standard without any modification.
In the official version, for Bibliography, the following notes have to be added for the standards
indicated:
IEC 61788-22-1 NOTE Harmonized as EN 61788-22-1
ISO/TS 80004-2:2015 NOTE Harmonized as CEN ISO/TS 80004-2:2017 (not modified)


2

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IEC 61788-22-3

®


Edition 1.0 2022-08




INTERNATIONAL



STANDARD




NORME


INTERNATIONALE
colour

inside










Superconductivity –

Part 22-3: Superconducting strip photon detector – Dark count rate



Supraconductivité –

Partie 22-3: Détecteur de photons à bande supraconductrice – Taux de

comptage en obscurité















INTERNATIONAL

ELECTROTECHNICAL

COMMISSION


COMMISSION

ELECTROTECHNIQUE


INTERNATIONALE




ICS 29.050 ISBN 978-2-8322-4070-0




Warning! Make sure that you obtained this publication from an authorized distributor.

Attention! Veuillez vous assurer que vous avez obtenu cette publication via un distributeur agréé.

® Registered trademark of the International Electrotechnical Commission
Marque déposée de la Commission Electrotechnique Internationale

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CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 8
2 Normative references . 8
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms . 8
3.1 Terms and definitions . 8
3.2 Abbreviated terms . 10
4 Principle of the measurement method . 10
5 Apparatus . 11
5.1 Detector packaging . 11
5.2 Cryogenic system . 11
5.3 Measurement system . 13
6 Measurement procedure . 14
6.1 Measurement of temperature . 14
6.2 Measurement of switching current . 14
6.3 Measurement of R . 15
D
7 Standard uncertainty . 16
7.1 Type A uncertainty . 16
7.2 Type B uncertainty . 16
7.3 Uncertainty budget table . 17
7.4 Uncertainty requirement . 18
8 Test report . 18
8.1 Identification of device under test (DUT) . 18
8.2 Measurement conditions and results . 18
8.3 Miscellaneous optional report . 19
Annex A (informative) Results of the round robin test. 20
A.1 DUT packages . 20
A.2 Measurement conditions . 20
A.3 Measurement results . 21
Bibliography . 25

Figure 1 – Example of one dark count pulse in the pulse train in inset . 9
Figure 2 – Schematic curve of R as a function of normalized bias current . 11
D
Figure 3 – Schematic diagram of a typical DCR measurement system . 12
Figure 4 – Equivalent circuit of the DCR measurement . 13
Figure 5 – Typical current-voltage (I-U) curve of an SSPD . 15
Figure A.1 – Photograph of the DUT with an SSPD and a temperature sensor . 20
Figure A.2 – I-U curve and R curves . 22
D

Table 1 – Uncertainty budget table for R . 18
D
Table A.1 – Test data of DUT . 22
Table A.2 – Temperature sensitivity and bias current sensitivity above a normalized
bias current of 0,9 . 23

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Table A.3 – u and u above a normalized bias current of 0,9 . 23
A B
Table A.4 – Budget table for R at a bias point of 5,25 µA (I /I = 0,955) . 23
D b sw
Table A.5 – DCR values measured at a bias point of 5,25 µA (I /I = 0,955) . 24
b sw
Table A.6 – Temperature measurement . 24

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INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY –

Part 22-3: Superconducting strip photon detector – Dark count rate

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
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preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
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consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of patent
rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
IEC 61788-22-3 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 90: Superconductivity. It is an
International Standard.
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
90/489/FDIS 90/491/RVD

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/standardsdev/publications.

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A list of all parts in the IEC 61788 series, published under the general title Superconductivity,
can be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.

IMPORTANT – The "colour inside" logo on the cover page of this document indicates that it
contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding of its
contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

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INTRODUCTION
IEC 61788-22 (all parts) is a series of International Standards on superconductor electronic
devices. Superconductivity enables ultra-sensitive sensing or detection of a variety of
1
measurands. IEC 61788-22-1 [1] lists various types of superconductor sensors and detectors.
The strip type in this document is one of them.
A typical fundamental structure of strip type detectors is a meander superconductor line, for
example, with a thickness of less than 10 nm, a width of less than 100 nm or a few 100 nm, and
a length of a few mm. The structure is in the nanoscale. ISO TS 80004-2:2015 [2] defines the
nanoscale as a length range approximately from 1 nm to 100 nm. Because nano-objects have
one or two dimensions in the nanoscale, superconductor meander lines are categorized as a
nano-object.
The term "nanowire" is frequently used for superconductor meander lines, but it is not
recommended in this document. In the ISO vocabulary, a nanowire is defined as an electrically
conducting or semi-conducting nanofibre with two external dimensions in the nanoscale, with
the third dimension being significantly larger. The two external dimensions of the nanowires are
in the nanoscale range, approximately from 1 nm to 100 nm. When the first two dimensions
differ significantly, a "nanoplate," "nanoribbon," or "nanotape" shall be used for the meander
line shape. However, in the field of electronics, these terms are not common. In addition to the
ISO definition of nano-objects, the shape of the superconductor meander lines may not fit the
shape of common wires that have a round cross-section. Although there are cases in which a
superconductor line shape falls into the category of nanowire (e.g. a superconductor line with
a thickness of 10 nm and a width of 100 nm), the theoretical treatment of single photon detection
mechanisms still requires "strip" rather than "nanowire": the width is wider than coherence
length and thus the superconductor line has a two-dimensional nature. Therefore,
IEC 61788-22-1 assigns the word "strip" or "nanostrip" to the meander line shape. According to
the nomenclature of the standard, the strip type detector is called superconductor strip photon
detector (SSPD) or superconductor nanostrip photon detector (SNSPD). The abbreviated term
SSPD is used in this document.
SSPDs are usually cooled down to a temperature well below the critical temperature and
current-biased with a bias value close to, but smaller than, its switch current. The photon
detection mechanisms can be described by Cooper-pair breaking, leading to hotspot formation
or vortex motion, followed by electrothermal feedback creating a resistive region [3], [4].
Although an exact detection model has not been established yet, it is true that photon absorption
leads to Cooper pair breaking that creates quasiparticles because the photon energy in a
telecommunication wavelength band (~ 1 eV) is typically 2 to 3 orders of magnitude higher than
the binding energy of a Cooper pair (~ meV). The photon absorption may create a normal-
conducting local-hotspot in the nanostrip. With an electrothermal feedback process, the normal
conducting domain expands across the width of the nanostrip and along the current flow
direction, leading to a voltage drop in the superconductor nanostrip. Other possible models are
vortex-antivortex depairing, in which two vortices move toward the opposite strip edges, and
single vortex crossing. Such vortex motion also creates a voltage drop, which can be followed
by resistive domain creation with the same electrothermal feedback mechanism. Because of
the resistive domain in the strip, the bias current is diverted to a readout circuit. The normal
conducting region will be cooled down rapidly and finally disappear. The above process
produces a voltage pulse which corresponds to an event of single photon absorption.
Typical application areas of SSPDs include quantum information, laser communication, light
detection and ranging, fluorescence spectroscopy and quantum computing. The SSPDs
outperform such single photon detectors as photomultipliers and avalanche photodiodes in
performance measures listed in the next paragraph. Due to the increasing needs for ultra-
sensitive photon detection in a range of visible to mid-infrared wavelengths, the SSPD market
___________
1
 Figures in square brackets refer to the Bibliography.

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is growing quickly. The standardization of SSPDs is beneficial to not only the industrial
application, but also detector development.
For photon detection, there are fundamental parameters, such as detection efficiency, timing
jitter, dead time and dark count rate. The dark count rate affects the measurement of other
parameters. For this reason, priority is given to the dark count rate. This document
(IEC 61788-22-3) defines a measurement method of dark count rate (DCR).

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SUPERCONDUCTIVITY –

Part 22-3: Superconducting strip photon detector – Dark count rate



1 Scope
This part of IEC 61788 is applicable to the measurement of the dark count rate (DCR, R ) of
D
superconductor strip photon detectors (SSPDs). It specifies terms, definitions, symbols and the
measurement method of DCR that depends on the bias current (I ) and operating temperature
b
(T).
NOTE The data of measurement results in Annex A are based on measurements of one institute only. The standard
will be updated after the data of a complete round robin test are available.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms
3.1 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
3.1.1
dark count
count recorded without any incident photon
Note 1 to entry: An example of one dark count is shown in Figure 1. The inset of Figure 1 shows a pulse train of
many dark counts, which have the same pulse shape.

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Figure 1 – Example of one dark count pulse in the pulse train in inset
3.1.2
dark count rate
DCR
R
D
number of dark counts per unit of time
Note 1 to entry: R is equal to the sum of R and R as defined below.
D Db Di
3.1.3
background dark count rate
R
Db
DCR originating from blackbody radiation of optical components and stray photons
3.1.4
intrinsic dark count rate
R
Di
DCR originating from spontaneous occurrence of resistance inside a superconductor strip
3.1.5
bias current
I
b
direct current flowing through a superconductor strip that forms an SSPD to hold operating
condition
3.1.6
switch current
I
sw
maximum bias current for photon counting operation
Note 1 to entry: The I value can be determined as the highest supercurrent on a static current-voltage (I-U) curve.
sw
Since a strip goes to normal conducting state locally by electrothermal feedback mechanism, the I value is usually
sw
lower than the critical current, at which the whole strip becomes the normal conducting state.

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3.1.7
normalized bias current
I /I
b sw
bias current divided by switch current
3.1.8
retrapping current
I
r
current at which an SSPD resumes a superconducting state from a normal conducting state
when the bias current is reduced from a high value above I
sw
3.2 Abbreviated terms
R dark count rate
D
R background dark count rate
Db
R intrinsic dark count rate
Di
I bias current
b
I switch current
sw
T temperature
t time interval
I retrapping current
r
V output pulse amplitude
pp
N number of measurements at a specific I and T
b
u type A standard uncertainty of R
A D
u type B standard uncertainty of R
B D
4 Principle of the measurement method
DCR is divided into two components: background DCR (R ) that originates from blackbody
Db
radiation of optical components and stray photons at any I value and intrinsic DCR (R ) that
b Di
originates from spontaneous occurrence of resistance inside superconductor strips and is
dominant in a high I region near I .
b sw
Figure 2 shows a schematic curve of the bias current dependence of R , which is called the R
D D
curve. In the measurement setup with an SSPD coupled to an optical fibre for signal input, the
R component is dominant in a low I region, while the R component is dominant in a high I
Db b Di b
region. The R component that has a relatively weak dependence on I and equals the product
Db b
of the detection efficiency and the sum of blackbody photons and stray photons. On the other
hand, the R component is related to the events of spontaneous voltage-drop occurrence
Di
probably due to vortex dynamics related to inherent properties of superconductor strips.
Since R strongly depends on user’s environment, R curves shall be measured in a high bias
Db D
current region of I /I (> 0,8 in Figure 2), in which R is dominant with a negligible contribution
b sw Di
of R .
Db
The R curves shall be measured by counting output pulses for a certain period at different I
D b
points while the temperature of the SSPD is held constant at an operating temperature
recommended by a manufacturer. There is an approximately linear relation between lg(R ) and
D
normalized bias current in I /I > 0,8, as shown in Figure 2.
b sw

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R is dominant in the low bias region.
Db
R is dominant in the high bias region.
Di
Figure 2 – Schematic curve of R as a function of normalized bias current
D
5 Apparatus
5.1 Detector packaging
Before characterizing an SSPD, it is necessary to make a detector package. For applications,
the most important purpose of packaging is to effectively couple the light to the SSPD active
area. A high coupling efficiency ensures a high detection efficiency. However, for the
measurement of R of the SSPD, optical coupling is optional.
Di
When optical coupling is optionally installed, fibre optical coupling is one of the most common
methods. The optical fibre shall be fixed in the block with effective and stable light coupling to
the detector. The temperature of the fibre end shall be the same as the block to minimize R .
Db
The fibre core shall be axially aligned to the SSPD active area surface to ensure good optical
coupling.
For the measurement of R , the SSPD shall be fixed to the packaging block using conductive
Di
silver paste or low-temperature conducting epoxy to ensure good thermal contact. The SSPD
shall be surrounded by the block material so that no blackbody radiation causes a temperature
rise of the SSPD. The block should be made of oxygen-free copper and equipped with a radio
frequency (RF) connector.
5.2 Cryogenic system
The most commonly used cryogenic system for SSPD operation is a cryostat based on a closed-
cycle mechanical cryocooler, e.g., Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocooler or a pulse-tube cryocooler,
which provides a base temperature of less than 4 K. The packaging block is mounted on a cold
head plate with good thermal contact to obtain the identical temperature as that of the plate. It
is noted that a geomagnetic field causes no observable change in DCR, so that a magnetic
shield is unnecessary.
The temperature of the packaging block shall be measured by a calibrated temperature sensor
during the R measurement. The procedure of the temperature measurement is provided in 6.1.
D

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The fibre and coaxial cables should be installed inside the cryostat to provide the optical and
electronic connection between the detector package and the measurement circuit at room
temperature.
As shown in Figure 3, one end of the fibre (blue line) is fixed on the detector package. The
other end of the fibre is connected to a fibre connector (blue square) on the cryostat chamber
, the fibre should be removed, then
surface at room temperature. For the measurement of R
Di
the detector is fully shielded from blackbody radiation and stray photons.

Figure 3 – Schematic diagram of a typical DCR measurement system

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Figure 4 – Equivalent circuit of the DCR measurement
5.3 Measurement system
The schematic diagram of a typical measurement system for the DCR measurement and the
equivalent circuit are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4, respectively. The SSPD in the detector
package is connected to the bias tee through a coaxial cable. The voltage source in series with
the bias resistor (R ) supplies a stable bias current to the SSPD. The tolerance of the bias
b
resistor shall be be
...