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arXiv:1406.4010 · Applied Physics Letters

Photon-noise limited sensitivity in titanium nitride kinetic inductance detectors

J. Hubmayr, J. Beall, D. Becker, Hsiao-Mei Cho, M. Devlin, B. Dober, C. Groppi, G. C. Hilton, K. D. Irwin, Dale Li, Philip D. Mauskopf, D. P. Pappas, J. Van Lanen, Michael R. Vissers, Y. Wang, L. F. Wei, J. Gao

Published Feb 16, 2015• 79 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

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 >3×10−17 W/Hz. This sensitivity makes these devices suitable for broadband photometric applications at these wavelengths.

DOI
10.1063/1.4913418

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Journal of Low Temperature Physics•Jul 18, 2018•9 citations
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 >3×10−17 W/Hz. This sensitivity makes these devices suitable for broadband photometric applications at these wavelengths.
We demonstrate microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) whose sensitivity is limited by photon noise at 50 mHz signal frequencies. The sub-Hz part of the detection spectrum is important for millimeter-wave instruments, yet photon noise below 1 Hz in MKIDs has not previously been demonstrated unambiguously. Devices are feedhorn-coupled, direct-absorber-type and consist of lumped-element superconducting resonators fabricated from a hybrid of stoichiometric TiN, Al, and an amorphous-Si passivation layer. Viewing a 7K thermal load and a passband centered on 2mm, the device noise spectrum is white down to 50 mHz and has an amplitude consistent with photon noise. We will present these measurements and discuss the multiple design choices that lead to the result.
We demonstrate microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) whose sensitivity is limited by photon noise at signal frequencies as low as 50 mHz. The subhertz part of the detection spectrum is important for contemporary millimeter-wave science, yet photon noise below 1 Hz in MKIDs has not previously been unambiguously demonstrated. These feedhorn-coupled detectors are sensitive over a 40% fractional bandwidth centered on λ = 2 mm, are dual-polarization-sensitive, and consist of lumped-element superconducting resonators fabricated from a hybrid of stoichiometric TiN and Al films together with an amorphous-Si passivation layer. When observing a 7 K, 3.8 pW thermal load and employing no signal modulation scheme, the measured noise spectrum is white down to 50 mHz and has an amplitude consistent with photon noise. These results have implications for the development of large-format, polarization-sensitive, millimeter-wave imagers.
We demonstrate photon counting at 1550 nm wavelength using microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) made from TiN/Ti/TiN trilayer films with superconducting transition temperature Tc≈ 1.4 K. The detectors have a lumped-element design with a large interdigitated capacitor covered by aluminum and inductive photon absorbers whose volume ranges from 0.4 μm3 to 20 μm3. The energy resolution improves as the absorber volume is reduced. We achieved an energy resolution of 0.22 eV and resolved up to 7 photons per optical pulse, both greatly improved from previously reported results at 1550 nm wavelength using MKIDs. Further improvements are possible by optimizing the optical coupling to maximize photon absorption into the inductive absorber.
As a newly developed pair-breaking superconducting detector, microwave kinetic inductance detectors are simple to integrate in the frequency domain and have already been used in astronomical detection and array imaging at the (sub)millimeter and optical wavelengths. For these applications, the dark noise level of kinetic inductance detector is one of the key performance indicators. Herein a noise power spectrum analysis method is introduced in detail, which can accurately and effectively analyze the noise spectrum of kinetic inductance detector in a wide frequency range. This method can well balance the noise spectrum resolution and variance performance, by taking the noise data at the resonance frequency with two sampling rates and setting the appropriate frequency resolutions for different frequency bands. This method is used to characterize and compare the noise of aluminum (Al) kinetic inductance detectors made from two different micromachining processes. We deposite a 25-nm-thick aluminum film on high-resistivity silicon substrate for one device, while place one silicon nitride (SiNx) film on the top and one on the bottom of the aluminum film for another device. It is found that the frequency noise of the device with two silicon nitride films is about 25% to 50% of the bare aluminum device. Using this double silicon nitride film fabrication technique, we further fabricate a few groups of lumped-element aluminum kinetic inductance detectors with various inductor and interdigitated capacitor designs. We investigate the noise properties of these devices at different microwave driven power and bath temperatures, and the experimental results show typical two-level system noise behaviors. Our work provides a standard method to characterize the noise power spectrum of kinetic inductor detector, and also paves the way to developing low-noise aluminum kinetic inductance detectors for terahertz imaging, photon-counting and energy-resolving applications.
We apply the superconducting proximity effect in TiN/Ti multi-layer films to tune the critical temperature, TC, to within 10 mK with high uniformity (less than 15 mK spread) across a 75 mm wafer. Reproducible TC’s are obtained from 0.8 to 2.5 K. These films had high resistivities, >100μΩ cm, and internal quality factors for resonators in the GHz range, on the order of 100 k and higher. Trilayers of both TiN/Ti/TiN and thicker superlattice films were prepared, demonstrating a well controlled process for films over a wide thickness range. Detectors were fabricated and shown to have single photon resolution at 1550 nm. The high uniformity and controllability coupled with the high quality factor, kinetic inductance, and inertness of TiN make these films ideal for use in frequency multiplexed kinetic inductance detectors and potentially other applications such as nanowire detectors, transition edge sensors, and associated quantum information applications.
We report on the investigation of titanium nitride (TiN) thin films deposited via atomic layer deposition (ALD) for microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKID). Using our in-house ALD process, we have grown a sequence of TiN thin films (thickness 15, 30, 60 nm). The films have been characterised in terms of superconducting transition temperature TcT_\mathrm{c}Tc​ , sheet resistance RsR_\mathrm{s}Rs​ and microstructure. We have fabricated test resonator structures and characterised them at a temperature of 300 mK. At 350 GHz, we report an optical noise equivalent power NEPopt≈2.3×10−15 W/Hz\hbox {NEP}_\mathrm{opt} \approx 2.3\times 10^{-15}~\hbox {W}/\sqrt{\hbox {Hz}}NEPopt​≈2.3×10−15 W/Hz​ , which is promising for passive terahertz imaging applications.