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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Non-Thermal Absorption and Quantum Efficiency of SINIS Bolometer

Michael A. Tarasov, Aleksandra A. Gunbina, Renat A. Yusupov, Artem M. Chekushkin, D. V. Nagirnaya, S. A. Lemzyakov, Vyacheslav F. Vdovin, Valerian S. Edelman, Alexei Kalaboukhov, Dag Winkler

Published Feb 5, 2021• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study mechanisms of absorption in two essentially different types of superconductor-insulator-normal metal-insulator-superconductor (SINIS) bolometers with absorber directly placed on Si wafer and with absorber suspended above the substrate. The figure of merit for quantum photon absorption is quantum efficiency equal to the number of detected electrons for one photon. The efficiency of absorption is dramatically dependent on phonon losses to substrate and electrodes, and electron energy losses to electrodes through tunnel junctions. The maximum quantum efficiency can approachn=hf/kT= 160 at f = 350 GHz T = 0.1 K, and current responsivity dI/dP=e/kTin quantum gain bolometer case, contrary to photon counter mode with quantum efficiency of n = 1 and responsivity dI/dP=e/hf. In experiments, we approach intrinsic quantum efficiency up to n = 80 electrons per photon in bolometer with suspended absorber, contrary to quantum efficiency of about one for absorber on the substrate. In the case of suspended Cu and Pd absorber, Kapitsa resistance protect from power leak to Al electrodes.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2021.3057327

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We study mechanisms of absorption in two essentially different types of superconductor-insulator-normal metal-insulator-superconductor (SINIS) bolometers with absorber directly placed on Si wafer and with absorber suspended above the substrate. The figure of merit for quantum photon absorption is quantum efficiency equal to the number of detected electrons for one photon. The efficiency of absorption is dramatically dependent on phonon losses to substrate and electrodes, and electron energy losses to electrodes through tunnel junctions. The maximum quantum efficiency can approachn=hf/kT= 160 at f = 350 GHz T = 0.1 K, and current responsivity dI/dP=e/kTin quantum gain bolometer case, contrary to photon counter mode with quantum efficiency of n = 1 and responsivity dI/dP=e/hf. In experiments, we approach intrinsic quantum efficiency up to n = 80 electrons per photon in bolometer with suspended absorber, contrary to quantum efficiency of about one for absorber on the substrate. In the case of suspended Cu and Pd absorber, Kapitsa resistance protect from power leak to Al electrodes.
We have developed a Superconductor-Insulator-Normal Metal-Insulator-Superconductor (SINIS) bolometer with a suspended normal metal bridge. The suspended bridge acts as a bolometric absorber with reduced heat losses to the substrate. Such bolometers were characterized at 100-350 mK bath temperatures and electrical responsivity of over 10 9 V/W was measured by dc heating the absorber through additional contacts. Suspended bolometers were also integrated in planar twin-slot and log-periodic antennas for operation in the submillimetre-band of radiation. The measured voltage response to radiation at 300 GHz and at 100 mK bath temperature is 3*10 8 V/W and a current response is 1.1*10 4 A/W which corresponds to a quantum efficiency of ~15 electrons per photon. An important feature of such suspended bolometers is the thermalization of electrons in the absorber heated by optical radiation, which in turn provides better quantum efficiency. This has been confirmed by comparison of bolometric response to dc and rf heating. We investigate the performance of direct SN traps and NIS traps with a tunnel barrier between the superconductor and normal metal trap. Increasing the volume of superconducting electrode helps to reduce overheating of superconductor. Influence of Andreev reflection and Kapitza resistance, as well as electron-phonon heat conductivity and thermal conductivity of N-wiring are estimated for such SINIS devices.
In this paper, we present the measurements of optical response dependence on power load of a Cold Electron Bolometer integrated in a twin slot antenna. These measurements are also compared to the models of the bolometer limit and the photon counter limit. The responsivity of 0.22*109V/W was measured at 0.22 pW radiation power from a black body at 3.5 K. According to our estimations, for optimized device the voltage responsivity at 100 mK electron temperature can approach S v = 1010V/W for power load below 0.1 pW and decreases down to 107V/W at 300 mK for 5 pW signal power in a sample with absorber volume of 5*10-20m3. In the case of low bath temperatures and high applied RF power the changes of tunneling current, dynamic resistance and voltage response are explained by non-thermal energy distribution of excited electrons. Distribution of excited electrons in such system at lower temperatures can be of non-Fermi type, hot electrons with energies of the order of 1 K tunnel from normal metal absorber to superconductor instead of relaxing down to thermal energy kTein absorber before tunneling. This effect can reduce quantum efficiency of the bolometer at 350 GHz from η = hf/kTph> 100 in ideal case down to single electron per absorbed photon ( η = 1) in the high power case. Methods of preserving high quantum efficiency are discussed.
We have developed a bolometer with a suspended normal-metal absorber connected to superconducting leads via tunneling barriers. Such an absorber has reduced heat losses to the substrate, which greatly increases the responsivity of the bolometer to over 109 V/W at 75 mK when measured by dc Joule heating of the absorber. For high-frequency experiments, the bolometers have been integrated in planar twin-slot and log-periodic antennas. At 300 GHz and 100 mK, the bolometer demonstrates the voltage and current response of 3 × 108 V/W and 1.1 × 104 A/W, respectively, corresponding to the quantum efficiency of ∼15 electrons per photon. An effective thermalization of electrons in the absorber favors the high quantum efficiency. We also report on how the in-plane- and transverse magnetic fields influence the device characteristics.
The superconductor–insulator–normal metal–insulator–superconductor (SINIS) tunnel junction structure is the basic building block for various cryogenic devices. Microwave detectors, electron coolers, primary thermometers, and Aharonov–Bohm interferometers have been fabricated by various methods and measured at temperatures down to 100 mK. The manufacturing methods included Dolan-type shadow evaporation, Manhattan-type shadow evaporation, and magnetron sputtering with selective etching of superconducting and normal metal electrodes. Improvement in ultimate sensitivity is achieved by suspending the absorber above the substrate. Best responsivity of up to 30 electrons per photon at a frequency of 350 GHz, or 72000 A/W, and voltage responsivity up to 3.9 × 10 9 V/W were obtained with a black body radiation source and series of band-pass filters. The specially designed SINIS arrays are intended to detect 90 GHz radiation at the “Big Telescope Alt-azimuthal” (romanized Russian: “Bolshoi Teleskop Alt-azimutalnyi”, BTA) with noise equivalent power of less than 10 −16 W·Hz −1/2 . The receiver in a 3 He cryostat with an optical window was mounted at the Nasmyth focus of the BTA and tested at a temperature of 260 mK with a IMPATT diode radiation source.
The voltage response of a thin-film normal-metal hot-electron bolometer based on a SINIS (superconductor-insulator-normal metal-insulator-superconductor) structure to the radiation of a high-temperature Josephson junction in the terahertz frequency region was measured. Bolometers were integrated with planar log-periodic and double-dipole antennas, and Josephson junctions were integrated with log-periodic antennas. Measurements showed that the Josephson junction at a temperature of 260 mK was overheated by the transport current, so that its electron temperature exceeded 3 K at a bias voltage of 1 mV. The maximum response of a bolometer with a double-dipole antenna was observed at a frequency of 300 GHz, which agreed well with the calculated value. The Josephson radiation was observed at frequencies up to 1.7 THz. The voltage response of a bolometer reached 4×10 8 V/W, and the total noise-equivalent power reached 1.5×10 −17 W/Hz 1/2 .
A single-electron trap built with two superconductor-insulator-normal metal tunnel junctions and coupled to a readout SINIS-type single-electron transistor A (SET A) was studied in a photon detection regime. As a source of photon irradiation, we used an operating second SINIS-type SET B positioned in the vicinity of the trap. In the experiment, the average hold time of the trap was found to be critically dependent on the voltage across SET B. Starting in a certain voltage range, a photon-assisted electron escape was observed at a rate roughly proportional to the emission rate of the photons with energies exceeding the superconducting gap of S-electrodes in the trap. The discussed mechanism of photon emission and detection is of interest for low-temperature noise spectrometry, and it can be of relevance for the ampere standard based on hybrid SINIS turnstiles.