  The origin of the decoherence in superconducting nanowire single-photon
detectors, the so-called dark count, was investigated. We measured the
direct-current characteristics and bias-current dependencies of the dark count
rate in a wide range of temperatures from 0.5 K to 4 K, and analyzed the
results by theoretical models of thermal fluctuations of vortices. Our results
indicate that the current-assisted unbinding of vortex-antivortex pairs is the
dominant origin of the dark count.
