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Applied Physics Letters

A superconducting bolometer with strong electrothermal feedback

Adrian Tae-Jin Lee, Paul L. Richards, Sae Woo Nam, Blas Cabrera, K. D. Irwin

Published Sep 16, 1996• 200 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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 C/G. We evaluated a voltage-biased bolometer that operates on the Tc∼95 mK transition of a tungsten film with a thermal conductance of G∼1.2×10−9 W/K. As expected, the electrical noise equivalent power of 3.3×10−17/W√Hz is close to the thermal fluctuation noise limit and is lower than that of other technologies for these values of G and temperature. The measured time constant of 10 μs is ∼100 times faster than the intrinsic time constant.

DOI
10.1063/1.117491

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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•Jun 1, 1997•27 citations
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 C/G. We evaluated a voltage-biased bolometer that operates on the Tc∼95 mK transition of a tungsten film with a thermal conductance of G∼1.2×10−9 W/K. As expected, the electrical noise equivalent power of 3.3×10−17/W√Hz is close to the thermal fluctuation noise limit and is lower than that of other technologies for these values of G and temperature. The measured time constant of 10 μs is ∼100 times faster than the intrinsic time constant.
We present an experimental study of a composite voltage-biased superconducting bolometer (VSB). The tested VSB consists of a Ti-film superconducting thermometer (T(c) ~375 mK) on a Si substrate suspended by NbTi superconducting leads. A resistor attached to the substrate provides calibrated heat input into the bolometer. The current through the bolometer is measured with a superconducting quantum interference device ammeter. Strong negative electrothermal feedback fixes the bolometer temperature at T(c) and reduces the measured response time from 2.6 s to 13 ms. As predicted, the measured current responsivity of the bolometer is equal to the inverse of the bias voltage. A noise equivalent power of 5 x 10(-17) W/ radicalHz was measured for a thermal conductance G ~ 4.7 x 10(-10) W/K, which is consistent with the expected thermal noise. Excess noise was observed for bias conditions for which the electrothermal feedback strength was close to maximum.
* Abstract - In the current generation of high- T, bolometers the thermal conductance is often chosen for a short time-constant rather than for optima1 sensitivity. We describe a novel bolometer bias and readout scheme that promises to relax this constraint. Voltage bias of the superconductor results in strong negative electrothermal feedback that greatly reduces the time-constant of the bolometer. We estimate that a decrease of more than one order of magnitude in time-constant should be possible with existing high-T, thermometers. We give theoretical estimates of the performance gain with voltage bias for several bolometers that have been reported in the literature. We find cases where the sensitivity can be greatly improved (by changing the thermal conductance) while holding the time constant fixed and others where the bolometer can be made much faster while maintaining the sensitivity. Superconducting transition-edge bolometers have traditionally been operated with a constant-current bias, which results in positive electrothermal feedback (ETF).(S) The bias current must therefore be limited to avoid thermal instability. It has recently been pointed out(6) that a constant-voltage bias mode with strong negative ETF(6,7) gives several important operational advantages. The most important of these is a large reduction of the bolometer time-constant due to strong ETF. We estimate a decrease of more than one order of magnitude in time constant should be possible with existing high-Tc thermometers. In the current generation of high-Tc bolometers the thermal conductance is often chosen for a short time-constant rather than for optimal sensitivity. The time-constant decrease due to negative ETF can be used to relax this constraint. In this Daner. we give theoretical estimates of the
We describe the fabrication and characterization of superconducting transition-edge bolometers for astrophysical applications at far-infrared and mm wavelengths. The sensor is voltage biased and the current is measured with a superconducting quantum interference ammeter. Strong negative electrothermal feedback keeps the sensor temperature nearly constant, reduces the response time significantly, and improves linearity. It also makes the responsivity relatively insensitive to changes in optical background loading and refrigerator temperature. The bolometers are made using standard microlithographic techniques suitable for fabrication of large scale arrays. Detailed measurements of optical response are presented for a range of bias conditions and are compared with theory. Measured noise spectra are shown and a model for the noise is presented.
Numerical and experimental modeling of the characteristics (sensitivity, constant time, noise properties) of high-Tc transition edge superconducting bolometers, operating in the various modes with an electrothermal feedback, are carried out: the mode with constant bias current, i.e. passive positive electrothermal feedback, the mode with constant bias voltage, i.e. passive negative electrothermal feedback and the mode with active electronic negative electrothermal feedback . It is shown, that in the modes with negative electrothermal feedback it is possible essentially to reduce constant time of bolometers till 5-15 of times in at some prize of the noise equivalent power on high frequencies. The estimation of influence of various noise components on a performance of the bolometers, operating with positive or negative electrothermal feedbacks, is carried out at the variation of bolometer parameters.
We have developed a new type of x-ray detector based on a superconducting transition-edge thermometer operated near 100 mK. A superconducting quantum interference device is used to measure the current through the thermometer, and negative electrothermal feedback is used to improve the energy resolution and shorten the thermal time constant. We have used a detector mounted on a scanning electron microscope to measure the energy of titanium Kα (4.5 keV) fluorescence x rays with a resolution better than 14 eV full width at half-maximum. Using two other devices, we have measured an energy resolution for Joule heat pulses of 2.6 eV at 1 keV and 0.2 eV at 4 eV, the best reported for any calorimeter. An electrical noise equivalent power of 3×10−18 W/√Hz was also measured, suggesting the use of these detectors as infrared bolometers.
In the current generation of high-T/sub c/ bolometers the thermal conductance is often chosen for a short time-constant rather than for optimal sensitivity. We describe a novel bolometer bias and readout scheme that promises to relax this constraint. Voltage bias of the superconductor results in strong negative electrothermal feedback that greatly reduces the time-constant of the bolometer. We estimate that a decrease of more than one order of magnitude in time-constant should be possible with existing high-T/sub c/ thermometers. We give theoretical estimates of the performance gain with voltage bias for several bolometers that have been reported in the literature. We find cases where the sensitivity can be greatly improved (by changing the thermal conductance) while holding the time constant fixed and others where the bolometer can be made much faster while maintaining the sensitivity.