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Ultra-fast single-photon detectors with high current density and operating temperature can benefit space and ground applications, including quantum optical communication systems, lightweight cryogenics for space crafts, and medical use. Here we demonstrate magnesium diboride (MgB$_2$) thin-film superconducting microwires capable of single-photon detection at 1.55 $\mu$m optical wavelength. We used helium ions to alter the properties of MgB$_2$, resulting in microwire-based detectors exhibiting single-photon sensitivity across a broad temperature range of up to 20 K, and detection efficiency saturation for 1 $\mu$m wide microwires at 3.7 K. Linearity of detection rate vs incident power was preserved up to at least ~100 Mcps. Despite the large active area of up to 400$\times$400 $\mu$m$^2$, the reset time was found to be as low as $\sim1$ ns. Our research provides new possibilities for breaking the operating temperature limit and maximum single-pixel count rate, expanding the detector area, and raises inquiries about the fundamental mechanisms of single-photon detection in high-critical-temperature superconductors.

The long theorized two-dimensional allotrope of SiC has remained elusive amid the exploration of graphenelike honeycomb structured monolayers. It is anticipated to possess a large direct band gap (2.5 eV), ambient stability, and chemical versatility. While $sp^{2}$ bonding between silicon and carbon is energetically favorable, only disordered nanoflakes have been reported to date. Here we demonstrate large-area, bottom-up synthesis of monocrystalline, epitaxial monolayer honeycomb SiC atop ultrathin transition metal carbide films on SiC substrates. We find the 2D phase of SiC to be almost planar and stable at high temperatures, up to 1200{\deg}C in vacuum. Interactions between the 2D-SiC and the transition metal carbide surface result in a Dirac-like feature in the electronic band structure, which in the case of a TaC substrate is strongly spin-split. Our findings represent the first step towards routine and tailored synthesis of 2D-SiC monolayers, and this novel heteroepitaxial system may find diverse applications ranging from photovoltaics to topological superconductivity.

Spectacular advances in heterodyne astronomy with both the Herschel Space Observatory and Stratospheric Observatory for Far Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have been largely due to breakthroughs in detector technology. In order to exploit the full capacity of future THz telescope space missions (e.g. Origins Space Telescope), new concepts of THz coherent receivers are needed, providing larger bandwidths and imaging capabilities with multi-pixel focal plane heterodyne arrays. Here we show that graphene, uniformly doped to the Dirac point, enables highly sensitive and wideband coherent detection of THz signals. With material resistance dominated by quantum localization, and thermal relaxation governed by electron diffusion, proof-of-concept graphene bolometers demonstrate a gain bandwidth of 8 GHz and a mixer noise temperature of 475 K, limited by residual thermal background in our setup. An optimized device will result in a mixer noise temperature as low as 36 K, with the gain bandwidth exceeding 20 GHz, and a Local Oscillator power lower than 100 pW. In conjunction with the emerging quantum-limited amplifiers at the intermediate frequency, our approach promises quantum-limited sensing in the THz domain, potentially surpassing superconducting technologies, particularly for large heterodyne arrays., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

We demonstrate quantum Hall resistance measurements with metrological accuracy in a small cryogen-free system operating at a temperature of around 3.8K and magnetic fields below 5T. Operating this system requires little experimental knowledge or laboratory infrastructure, thereby greatly advancing the proliferation of primary quantum standards for precision electrical metrology. This significant advance in technology has come about as a result of the unique properties of epitaxial graphene on SiC., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures

We report a study of disorder effects on epitaxial graphene in the vicinity of the Dirac point by magneto-transport. Hall effect measurements show that the carrier density increases quadratically with temperature, in good agreement with theoretical predictions which take into account intrinsic thermal excitation combined with electron-hole puddles induced by charged impurities. We deduce disorder strengths in the range 10.2 $\sim$ 31.2 meV, depending on the sample treatment. We investigate the scattering mechanisms and estimate the impurity density to be $3.0 \sim 9.1 \times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-2}$ for our samples. An asymmetry in the electron/hole scattering is observed and is consistent with theoretical calculations for graphene on SiC substrates. We also show that the minimum conductivity increases with increasing disorder potential, in good agreement with quantum-mechanical numerical calculations., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Energy relaxation of hot Dirac fermions in bilayer epitaxial graphene is experimentally investigated by magnetotransport measurements on Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and weak localization. The hot-electron energy loss rate is found to follow the predicted Bloch-Gr\"uneisen power-law behaviour of $T^4$ at carrier temperatures from 1.4 K up to $\sim$100 K, due to electron-acoustic phonon interactions with a deformation potential coupling constant of 22 eV. A carrier density dependence $n_e^{-1.5}$ in the scaling of the $T^4$ power law is observed in bilayer graphene, in contrast to the $n_e^{-0.5}$ dependence in monolayer graphene, leading to a crossover in the energy loss rate as a function of carrier density between these two systems. The electron-phonon relaxation time in bilayer graphene is also shown to be strongly carrier density dependent, while it remains constant for a wide range of carrier densities in monolayer graphene. Our results and comparisons between the bilayer and monolayer exhibit a more comprehensive picture of hot carrier dynamics in graphene systems., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

We study an epitaxial graphene monolayer with bilayer inclusions via magnetotransport measurements and scanning gate microscopy at low temperatures. We find that bilayer inclusions can be metallic or insulating depending on the initial and gated carrier density. The metallic bilayers act as equipotential shorts for edge currents, while closely spaced insulating bilayers guide the flow of electrons in the monolayer constriction, which was locally gated using a scanning gate probe., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

Weak localization in graphene is studied as a function of carrier density in the range from 1 x $10^{11}$\,cm$^{-2}$ to 1.43 x $10^{13}$\,cm$^{-2}$ using devices produced by epitaxial growth onto SiC and CVD growth on thin metal film. The magnetic field dependent weak localization is found to be well fitted by theory, which is then used to analyse the dependence of the scattering lengths L$_\varphi$, L$_i$, and L$_*$ on carrier density. We find no significant carrier dependence for L$_\varphi$, a weak decrease for L$_i$ with increasing carrier density just beyond a large standard error, and a n$^{-\frac{1}{4}}$ dependence for L$_*$. We demonstrate that currents as low as 0.01\,nA are required in smaller devices to avoid hot-electron artefacts in measurements of the quantum corrections to conductivity.

We report the phase-space defined by the quantum Hall effect breakdown in polymer gated epitaxial graphene on SiC (SiC/G) as a function of temperature, current, carrier density, and magnetic fields up to 30T. At 2K breakdown currents ($I_c$) almost two orders of magnitude greater than in GaAs devices are observed. The phase boundary of the dissipationless state ($\rho_{xx}=0$) shows a (1-$(T/T_c)^2$) dependence and persists up to $T_c>45K$ at 29T. With magnetic field $I_c$ was found to increase $\propto B^{3/2}$ and $T_c \propto B^{1.88}$. As the Fermi energy approaches the Dirac point, the $\nu=2$ quantized Hall plateau appears continuously from fields as low as 1T up to at least 19T due to a strong magnetic field dependence of the carrier density.

In this paper we review the recent extraordinary progress in the development of a new quantum standard for resistance based on graphene. We discuss the unique properties of this material system relating to resistance metrology and discuss results of the recent highest-ever precision direct comparison of the Hall resistance between graphene and traditional GaAs. We mainly focus our review on graphene expitaxially grown on SiC, a system which so far resulted in the best results. We also brie y discuss progress in the two other graphene material systems, exfoliated graphene and chemical vapour deposition graphene, and make a critical comparison with SiC graphene. Finally we discuss other possible applications of graphene in metrology., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1202.2985

Energy loss rates for hot carriers in graphene have been measured using graphene produced by epitaxial growth on SiC, exfoliation and chemical vapour deposition (CVD). It is shown that the temperature dependence of the energy loss rates measured with high-field damped Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, and the temperature dependence of the weak localization peak close to zero field correlate well, with the high-field measurements understating the energy loss rates by $\sim$40% compared to the low-field results. The energy loss rates for all graphene samples follow a universal scaling of $T_{e}^4$ at low temperatures and depend weakly on carrier density $\propto$ n$^{-1/2}$ evidence for enhancement of the energy loss rate due to disorder in CVD samples., Comment: 8 figs PRB in press

The half-integer quantum Hall effect in epitaxial graphene is compared with high precision to the well known integer effect in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. We find no difference between the quantised resistance values within the relative standard uncertainty of our measurement of $8.7\times 10^{-11}$. The result places new tighter limits on any possible correction terms to the simple relation $R_{\rm K}=h/e^2$, and also demonstrates that epitaxial graphene samples are suitable for application as electrical resistance standards of the highest metrological quality. We discuss the characterisation of the graphene sample used in this experiment and present the details of the cryogenic current comparator bridge and associated uncertainty budget.

We observe photocurrents induced in single layer graphene samples by illumination of the graphene edges with circularly polarized terahertz radiation at normal incidence. The photocurrent flows along the sample edges and forms a vortex. Its winding direction reverses by switching the light helicity from left- to right-handed. We demonstrate that the photocurrent stems from the sample edges, which reduce the spatial symmetry and result in an asymmetric scattering of carriers driven by the radiation electric field. The developed theory is in a good agreement with the experiment. We show that the edge photocurrents can be applied for determination of the conductivity type and the momentum scattering time of the charge carriers in the graphene edge vicinity., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure, additional Supplemental Material (3 pages, 1 figure)

We report the study of the helicity driven photocurrents in graphene excited by mid-infrared light of a CO$_2$-laser. Illuminating an unbiased monolayer sheet of graphene with circularly polarized radiation generates -- under oblique incidence -- an electric current perpendicular to the plane of incidence, whose sign is reversed by switching the radiation helicity. We show that the current is caused by the interplay of the circular $ac$ Hall effect and the circular photogalvanic effect. Studying the frequency dependence of the current in graphene layers grown on the SiC substrate we observe that the current exhibits a resonance at frequencies matching the longitudinal optical phonon in SiC.

The Syst\`eme Internationale d'unit\'es (SI system) is about to undergo its biggest change in half a century by redefining the units for mass and current in terms of the fundamental constants h and e, respectively. This change crucially relies on the exactness of the relationships which link these constants to measurable quantities. Here we directly compare the integer quantum Hall effect in epitaxial graphene with that in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. We find no difference of the quantized resistance value within the relative standard uncertainty of our measurement of 8.6\times10-11, being the most stringent test of the universality of the quantum Hall effect in terms of material independence.

We explore the robust quantization of the Hall resistance in epitaxial graphene grown on Si-terminated SiC. Uniquely to this system, the dominance of quantum over classical capacitance in the charge transfer between the substrate and graphene is such that Landau levels (in particular, the one at exactly zero energy) remain completely filled over an extraordinarily broad range of magnetic fields. One important implication of this pinning of the filling factor is that the system can sustain a very high nondissipative current. This makes epitaxial graphene ideally suited for quantum resistance metrology, and we have achieved a precision of 3 parts in 10^10 in the Hall resistance quantization measurements.

We report the observation of the circular ac Hall effect where the current is solely driven by the crossed ac electric and magnetic fields of circularly polarized radiation. Illuminating an unbiased monolayer sheet of graphene with circularly polarized terahertz radiation at room temperature generates - under oblique incidence - an electric current perpendicular to the plane of incidence, whose sign is reversed by switching the radiation helicity. Alike the classical dc Hall effect, the voltage is caused by crossed electric and magnetic fields which are however rotating with the light's frequency., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures