NbN vacuum bridge bolometer arrays with room temperature readout approaching photon noise limited THz imaging applications

Panu Helistö, Jari Penttilä, Hannu Sipola, Leif Grönberg, F. Maibaum, Arttu Luukanen, Heikki Seppä

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We study the applicability of superconducting NbN vacuum bridge bolometer arrays with room temperature readout electronics to passive THz imaging applications. We show that sufficient bandwidth for video-rate mechanical scanning in terms of stability and noise can be reached by exploiting the divergences of the bolometer noise temperature and the differential impedance at the I - V curve minimum. Experimental electrical noise equivalent power is 9 fW/Hz1/2. This would correspond to ¡­10 times the photon noise in a bandwidth of 0.5 THz and is comparable to the expected clutter in passive THz images due to atmospheric fluctuations.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)310-313
    JournalIEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity
    Volume17
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2007
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • Passive imaging
    • Superconducting bolometers
    • THz

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