Infrared wavelength-dependent optical characterization of NbN nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors

We report optical characterization of NbN nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors as a function of wavelength in the near infrared. System detection efficiency decreases from 6% at 1.15 m to 2% at 1.72 m, while timing jitter remains relatively constant at 60 ps full-width-half-maximum over the range 0.7-2.0 m. We further demonstrate the capabilities of this detector with a time-correlated single-photon counting measurement of photoluminescence from a semiconductor sample emitting at 1.65 m.