New designs for antenna-coupled superconducting bolometers

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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.

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