Controlling thermal transport has become relevant in recent years. Traditionally, this control has been achieved by tuning the scattering of phonons by including various types of scattering centres in the material (nanoparticles, impurities, etc). Here we take another approach and demonstrate that one can also use coherent band structure effects to control phonon thermal conductance, with the help of periodically nanostructured phononic crystals. We perform the experiments at low temperatures below 1 K, which not only leads to negligible bulk phonon scattering, but also increases the wavelength of the dominant thermal phonons by more than two orders of magnitude compared to room temperature. Thus, phononic crystals with lattice constants ≥1 μm are shown to strongly reduce the thermal conduction. The observed effect is in quantitative agreement with the theoretical calculation presented, which accurately determined the ballistic thermal conductance in a phononic crystal device.

Superconducting stripline detectors (SSLDs) are promising for detecting keV molecules at nanosecond response times and with mass-independent detection efficiency. However, a fast response time is incompatible with practical centimeter detector size. A parallel configuration of striplines provides a means to address this problem. Experimental results and simulation for promisingly large 1-mm-square parallel niobium SSLDs show that nanosecond pulses are produced by superconducting-normal transition within only one of the parallel striplines instead of cascade switching of all the parallel striplines. Successful detection of a series of multimers of immunoglobulin G up to 584 kDa supports the mass-independent efficiency for mass spectrometry.

Transition edge sensor microcalorimeters can be used in many optical quantum measurements because of its low dark counts, high quantum efficiency, and high resolving power of a photon number in weak light pulses. In order to increase count rates up to a few MHz, we have developed a titanium transition edge sensor for the optical measurements, and its performances were analysed. Titanium is one of the ideal superconductor because of its higher transition temperature and lower optical reflectance at 1.5 wavelength. Our titanium film was fabricated with electron-beam evaporation, and showed high residual resistance ratio of 3.5. The sharp superconducting transition also was found at 359 mK, which is close to the critical temperature in bulk. The fabricated device showed a fast response to pulsed laser illumination of 1.5 wavelength with the fall time constant of 300 ns. These features are very promising for high-speed single photon detection in many quantum optical measurements.

We review progress in the development and applications of superconducting nano-strip particle detectors. Particle detectors based on superconducting nano-strips stem from the parent devices developed for single photon detection (SSPD) and share with them ultra-fast response times (sub-nanosecond) and the ability to operate at a relatively high temperature (2–5 K) compared with other cryogenic detectors. SSPDs have been used in the detection of electrons, neutral and charged ions, and biological macromolecules; nevertheless, the development of superconducting nano-strip particle detectors has mainly been driven by their use in time-of-flight mass spectrometers (TOF-MSs) where the goal of 100% efficiency at large mass values can be achieved. Special emphasis will be given to this case, reporting on the great progress which has been achieved and which permits us to overcome the limitations of existing mass spectrometers represented by low detection efficiency at large masses and charge/mass ambiguity. Furthermore, such progress could represent a breakthrough in the field. In this review article we will introduce the device concept and detection principle, stressing the peculiarities of the nano-strip particle detector as well as its similarities with photon detectors. The development of parallel strip configuration is introduced and extensively discussed, since it has contributed to the significant progress of TOF-MS applications.

We have been developing superconducting time-of-flight mass spectrometry systems that utilize superconducting strip particle detectors and single-flux-quantum (SFQ) time-to-digital converters (TDCs). We previously demonstrated a 24-bit SFQ TDC with a 3 by 24-bit first-in first-out (FIFO) buffer using the AIST Nb standard process (STP2) with a time resolution of 100 ps. In this study, we improved the SFQ TDC by using a current recycling technique. The technique enables us to increase the FIFO buffer capacity without increasing the total supply current, and the result is an improvement of ion count rates. We designed and demonstrated the SFQ TDC with a 12 by 24-bit FIFO buffer, whose total supply current was reduced by 71% with the current recycling technique.

We have been developing a superconducting time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) system that consists of a superconducting strip ion detector (SSID) and a single-flux-quantum (SFQ) time-to-digital converter. In this study, we implement a prototype TOF-MS system using an SSID and an SFQ readout circuit in which output signals from the SSID are read out by the SFQ readout circuit and output to room-temperature electronics. The SFQ readout circuit, which consists of a current discriminator, a Josephson transmission line and an SFQ/dc converter, was fabricated using the AIST Nb standard process (STP2), and installed in a 4.2 K cryostat with a meander-shaped NbN SSID measuring 200 μ m square. The dark count rate for the SSID was measured as increasing exponentially with the increase in the bias current of the SSID by using the SFQ readout circuit. Mass spectrum measurements of biomolecules, Angiotensin I, which has a molecular weight of 1296 Da, were demonstrated by using the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization method, and a clear corresponding peak was observed in the mass spectrum.