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Applied Physics Letters

New designs for antenna-coupled superconducting bolometers

J. Mees, Michael Nahum, P. L. Richards

Published Oct 28, 1991• 38 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a novel antenna-coupled low Tc superconducting bolometer which makes use of the thermal boundary resistance and the trapping of quasiparticles at metal-superconducting interfaces. A thin strip of superconductor, whose temperature is regulated at the midpoint of its resistive transition, serves both as a resistive load to thermalize the infrared current from the antenna and as a thermometer to measure the resulting temperature rise. Calculations give a noise equivalent power (NEP)≊7×10−16 T5/2 WHz−1/2 and a time constant τ≊10−8 T−2 s for a 2×2 μm2 thermometer area at temperature T (K). Designs for efficient on-chip rf matching and filter networks with well-defined bandpasses are presented. These detectors can be used to make frequency-multiplexed array receivers for astronomical observations at near millimeter wavelengths.

DOI
10.1063/1.106059

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We propose a novel antenna-coupled low Tc superconducting bolometer which makes use of the thermal boundary resistance and the trapping of quasiparticles at metal-superconducting interfaces. A thin strip of superconductor, whose temperature is regulated at the midpoint of its resistive transition, serves both as a resistive load to thermalize the infrared current from the antenna and as a thermometer to measure the resulting temperature rise. Calculations give a noise equivalent power (NEP)≊7×10−16 T5/2 WHz−1/2 and a time constant τ≊10−8 T−2 s for a 2×2 μm2 thermometer area at temperature T (K). Designs for efficient on-chip rf matching and filter networks with well-defined bandpasses are presented. These detectors can be used to make frequency-multiplexed array receivers for astronomical observations at near millimeter wavelengths.
A description is given of recent work at Berkeley on superconducting detectors and mixers for infrared and millimeter wavelengths. The first report is a review article which summarizes the status of development of superconducting components for infrared and millimeter wave receivers. Next, a report is given on measurements and theoretical modeling of the absorptivity (surface resistance) of high quality epitaxial films of the high-Tc superconductor YBCO from 750 GHz to 21 THz. The next report describes measurements of the thermal boundary resistance between YBCO films and various substrates. This resistance is much larger than expected from the acoustic impedance mismatch model and gives a thermal time constant in the nanosecond range for typical YBCO films. Then, there are reports on the design and experimental performance of two different types of high-Tc bolometric detectors. One is a conventional bolometer with a gold-black absorber. The other is an antenna coupled microbolometer. The properties of a low-Tc microbolometer are also described. The last reports describe accurate measurements and also theoretical modeling of an SIS quasiparticle waveguide mixer for W-band which uses very high quality Ta junctions. The best mixer noise is only 1.3 times the quantum limit. Both the mixer gain and the noise are in quantitative agreement with the quantum theory.
A description is given of recent work at Berkeley on superconducting detectors and mixers for infrared and millimeter wavelengths. The first report is a review article which summarizes the status of development of superconducting components for infrared and millimeter wave receivers. Next, a report is given on measurements and theoretical modeling of the absorptivity (surface resistance) of high quality epitaxial films of the high-Tc superconductor YBCO from 750 GHz to 21 THz. The next report describes measurements of the thermal boundary resistance between YBCO films and various substrates. This resistance is much larger than expected from the acoustic impedance mismatch model and gives a thermal time constant in the nanosecond range for typical YBCO films. Reports are also included on the design and experimental performance of two different types of high-Tc bolometric detectors. One is a conventional bolometer with a gold-black absorber. The other is an antenna coupled microbolometer. The properties of a low-Tc microbolometer are also described. The last reports describe accurate measurements and also theoretical modeling of an SIS quasi-particle waveguide mixer for W-band which uses very high quality Ta junctions. The best mixer noise is only 1.3 times the quantum limit. Both the mixer gain and the noise are in quantitative agreement with the quantum theory.
We present a superconducting noise bolometer for terahertz radiation, which is suitable for large-format arrays. It is based on an antenna-coupled superconducting micro-bridge embedded in a high-quality factor superconducting resonator for a microwave bias and readout with frequency-division multiplexing in the GHz range. The micro-bridge is kept below its critical temperature and biased with a microwave current of slightly lower amplitude than the critical current of the micro-bridge. The response of the detector is the rate of superconducting fluctuations, which depends exponentially on the concentration of quasiparticles in the micro-bridge. Excess quasiparticles are generated by an incident THz signal. Since the quasiparticle lifetime increases exponentially at lower operation temperature, the noise equivalent power rapidly decreases. This approach allows for large arrays of noise bolometers operating above 1 K with sensitivity, limited by 300-K background noise. Moreover, the response of the bolometer always dominates the noise of the readout due to relatively large amplitude of the bias current. We performed a feasibility study on a proof-of-concept device with a 1.0 × 0.5 μm2 micro-bridge from a 9-nm thin Nb film on a sapphire substrate. Having a critical temperature of 5.8 K, it operates at 4.2 K and is biased at the frequency 5.6 GHz. For the quasioptical input at 0.65 THz, we measured the noise equivalent power ≈3 × 10−12 W/Hz1/2, which is close to expectations for this particular device in the noise-response regime.
A description is given of recent work at Berkeley on superconducting mixers and detectors for infrared and millimeter wavelengths. The first report is a review article which summarizes the status of development of superconducting components for infrared and millimeter wave receivers. The next report describes accurate measurements and also theoretical modeling of an SIS quasiparticle waveguide mixer for W-band which uses very high quality Ta junctions. The best mixer noise is only 1.3 times the quantum limit. Both the mixer gain and the noise are in quantitative agreement with the quantum theory. Next, a report is given on measurements and theoretical modeling of the absorptivity (surface resistance) of high quality epitaxial films of the high {Tc} superconductor YBCO from 750 GHz to 21 THz. Finally, there are reports on the design and experimental performance of two different types of high {Tc} bolometric detectors. One is a conventional bolometer with a gold-black absorber. The other is an antenna coupled microbolometer.