Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors for Dark Matter Detection and High Energy Physics Applications

Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as the most advanced detectors for time-resolved single photon counting from the UV to the mid-infrared through their unique combination of high detection efficiency, low timing jitter, and low intrinsic dark count rates. Recent developments in nanofabrication, device characterization, and modelling of fundamental device physics have pushed forward the performance of SNSPDs in their historical strengths as quantum sensors at larger active areas, lower energy thresholds, and higher maximum count rates than ever before. We discuss novel applications of such state-of-the-art SNSPDs, including high energy physics, rare event detection, and quantum metrology. In particular, we report on recent progress towards a low-mass dark matter detection experiment using n-type Gallium Arsenide targets read out with large-area SNSPDs. This direct detection experiment aims to probe several orders of magnitude of unexplored parameter space for dark matter-electron interactions.