Photon-noise limited sensitivity in titanium nitride kinetic inductance detectors
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 (United States)
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 S Terrace Rd., Tempe, Arizona 85281 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States)
- Quantum Optoelectronics Laboratory, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu (China)
We demonstrate photon-noise limited performance at sub-millimeter wavelengths in feedhorn-coupled, microwave kinetic inductance detectors made of a TiN/Ti/TiN trilayer superconducting film, tuned to have a transition temperature of 1.4 K. Micro-machining of the silicon-on-insulator wafer backside creates a quarter-wavelength backshort optimized for efficient coupling at 250 μm. Using frequency read out and when viewing a variable temperature blackbody source, we measure device noise consistent with photon noise when the incident optical power is >0.5 pW, corresponding to noise equivalent powers >3×10{sup −17} W/√(Hz). This sensitivity makes these devices suitable for broadband photometric applications at these wavelengths.
- OSTI ID:
- 22412667
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 7; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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