Speaker
Description
Superconducting nanostrips are well-established as a device technology for quantum sensing, having found use in fields as diverse as deep-space communication, LIDAR, and quantum cryptography. However, these applications generally take advantage of the exceptional timing resolution and fast reset time of these devices. In contrast, for dark matter detection, the exceptionally low dark-count rate of superconducting-nanostrip-based detectors is one of the primary motivating factors. These devices have demonstrated dark count rates in the few-counts per week range (≲ 10 μcps) while exhibiting detection efficiency in the ≳ 10% range for photon energies of interest to detector approaches like LAMPOST [1], QROCODILE [2]. This unique combination of low dark count rate and high efficiency (with the potential for efficient detection at photon energies ≲ 100 meV) makes these detectors attractive for future dark-matter detection. One planned experiment is DPHASE [3], in which a dielectric powder is to be used as a dark-matter absorber, with the aim of generating optical and infrared photons in the powder and then detecting them with a superconducting-nanostrip-based detector at the detector surface. In this presentation, we will discuss nanostrip detectors, the origin of the unique properties that make them robust against dark-counts, and the possibilities for scaling them to dimensions and scales that would be of particular interest to various dark-matter-detector approaches.
[1] Chiles et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 231802 (2022)
[2] Baudis et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 081002 (2025)
[3] Koppell et al., Phys. Rev. D, Accepted, 2026