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Technical Physics

Analysys of the concept of a superconducing bolometer with rf readout

Nikolay N. Abramov

Published Feb 1, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The concept of a superconducting transition-edge bolometer with rf readout, which was proposed in a number of earlier publications, is analyzed. It is shown that such a device cannot in fact operate at the edge of the superconducting transition, and nonequilibrium effects in the superconductor play the major role in its response to the electromagnetic action. A mathematical model is developed, which explains qualitatively the experimental results reported earlier and indicating an unstable response to the action of a readout (pump) signal. The possibility of obtaining a stable response with an optimal choice of parameters of the device is also demonstrated.

DOI
10.1134/s106378421602002x

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The concept of a superconducting transition-edge bolometer with rf readout, which was proposed in a number of earlier publications, is analyzed. It is shown that such a device cannot in fact operate at the edge of the superconducting transition, and nonequilibrium effects in the superconductor play the major role in its response to the electromagnetic action. A mathematical model is developed, which explains qualitatively the experimental results reported earlier and indicating an unstable response to the action of a readout (pump) signal. The possibility of obtaining a stable response with an optimal choice of parameters of the device is also demonstrated.
The results of pioneering experiments on using a new method of microwave recording the bolometric response from a metal film near its superconducting transition edge are analyzed. Experiments are carried out at 4.5 K using a thin-film niobium absorber with a critical temperature of 6.7 K. The validity of the adopted electrodynamic model is confirmed. The chip contains a miniature antenna tuned to approximately 600 GHz and integrated into a planar resonator with a frequency of 6 GHz, which is weakly coupled with a pump line. Based on the experimental and model data, the presence of electrothermal feedback is shown, stability criteria are found, and I–V characteristics at microwaves are obtained. Bulk experimental samples with an absorber measuring 5 μm × 2.5 μm × 15 nm are fabricated with optical photolithography. At an amplifier channel noise of 3 K, the optical sensitivity of a prototype receiver can be expected at a level of 10 −15 W/Hz 1/2 .
We present a model of the response of superconducting AC bolometers to signal and noise using parameters and matrix formalism that were previously adopted in modeling DC bolometers and microcalorimeters. The model was developed to investigate novel AC bolometer designs, which have properties not described by previous models. It is applicable to kinetic inductance devices, kinetic inductance thermometers, AC transition edge sensors, and other technologies based on AC read out and frequency mixing. The AC bolometer model includes the temperature and current dependence of both resistive and inductive bolometers and microcalorimeters. The bolometers may be thermal or athermal. The model compactly describes the complex relationships between electrical and thermal signals and it simplifies the associated calculations. This model is useful for characterizing bolometers, predicting the effects of various noise sources on performance and designing new detectors. Additionally, a measurement technique is developed for characterizing these devices.
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.
Superconducting hot-electron bolometers are presently the best performing mixing devices for the frequency range beyond 1.2 THz, where good-quality superconductor-insulator-superconductor devices do not exist. Their physical appearance is very simple: an antenna consisting of a normal metal, sometimes a normal-metal-superconductor bilayer, connected to a thin film of a narrow short superconductor with a high resistivity in the normal state. The device is brought into an optimal operating regime by applying a dc current and a certain amount of local-oscillator power. Despite this technological simplicity, its operation has found to be controlled by many different aspects of superconductivity, all occurring simultaneously. A core ingredient is the understanding that there are two sources of resistance in a superconductor: a charge-conversion resistance occurring at a normal-metal-superconductor interface and a resistance due to time-dependent changes of the superconducting phase. The latter is responsible for the actual mixing process in a nonuniform superconducting environment set up by the bias conditions and the geometry. The present understanding indicates that further improvement needs to be found in the use of other materials with a faster energy relaxation rate. Meanwhile, several empirical parameters have become physically meaningful indicators of the devices, which will facilitate the technological developments.
A transition edge sensor series array (TES-SA) is an array of identical TESs that are connected in series by low-inductance superconducting wiring. The array elements are equally and well thermally coupled to the absorber and respond to changes in the absorber temperature in synchronization. The TES-SA total resistance increases compared to a single TES while the shape of the superconducting transition is preserved. We are developing a TES-SA with a large number, hundreds to thousands, of array elements with the goal of enabling the readout of a TES-based bolometer operated at 4.2 K with a semiconductor-based amplifier located at room temperature. The noise and dynamic performance of a TES-SA bolometer based on a niobium/aluminum bilayer is analyzed. It is shown that stable readout of the bolometer with a low-noise transimpedance amplifier is feasible.