A superconducting bolometer with strong electrothermal feedback
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4060 (United States)
- National Institute of Science and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80303 (United States)
We present a theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation of a transition-edge superconducting bolometer for detecting infrared and millimeter waves. The superconducting film is voltage biased and the current is read by a superconducting quantum interference device ammeter. Strong electrothermal feedback maintains the sensor temperature within the transition, gives a current responsivity that is simply the inverse of the bias voltage, and reduces the response time by several orders of magnitude below the intrinsic time constant {ital C}/{ital G}. We evaluated a voltage-biased bolometer that operates on the {ital T}{sub {ital c}}{approximately}95 mK transition of a tungsten film with a thermal conductance of {ital G}{approximately}1.2{times}10{sup {minus}9} W/K. As expected, the electrical noise equivalent power of 3.3{times}10{sup {minus}17}/W{radical}Hz is close to the thermal fluctuation noise limit and is lower than that of other technologies for these values of {ital G} and temperature. The measured time constant of 10 {mu}s is {approximately}100 times faster than the intrinsic time constant. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098; FG03-90ER40569
- OSTI ID:
- 390448
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 69, Issue 12; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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