Towards a microwave single-photon counter for searching axions

The major task of detecting axions or axion-like particles has two challenges. On the one hand, the ultimate sensitivity is required, down to the energy of a single microwave photon of the yoctojoule range. On the other hand, since the detected events are supposed to be rare, the dark count rate of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published innpj quantum information Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 1 - 7
Main Authors Pankratov, A. L., Revin, L. S., Gordeeva, A. V., Yablokov, A. A., Kuzmin, L. S., Il’ichev, E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 18.05.2022
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects
639/766/1130/1064
639/766/483/3925
Atoms & subatomic particles
Classical and Quantum Gravitation
Efficiency
Photons
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Quantum Computing
Quantum Field Theories
Quantum Information Technology
Quantum Physics
Relativity Theory
Sensors
Simulation
Spintronics
String Theory
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Summary:The major task of detecting axions or axion-like particles has two challenges. On the one hand, the ultimate sensitivity is required, down to the energy of a single microwave photon of the yoctojoule range. On the other hand, since the detected events are supposed to be rare, the dark count rate of the detector must be extremely low. We show that this trade-off can be approached due to the peculiar switching dynamics of an underdamped Josephson junction in the phase diffusion regime. The detection of a few photons’ energy at 10 GHz with dark count time above 10 s and the efficiency close to unity was demonstrated. Further enhancements require a detailed investigation of the junction switching dynamics.
ISSN:2056-6387
2056-6387
DOI:10.1038/s41534-022-00569-5