Abstract
We present a study of a cold-electron bolometer operating at 350 mK with a twin-slot antenna coupling radiation at 160 GHz. The detector's absorbing element consists of degenerately-doped strained silicon and has Schottky contacts to superconducting aluminium leads. These contacts allow for direct electron cooling of the absorber to below the phonon temperature, enabling the cold-electron bolometer to achieve much faster time constants (τ <; 1 μs) compared to conventional bolometric detectors while not sacrificing sensitivity. We measure both the dark and optically-loaded noise of the detector via a novel method of cross-correlating the outputs of two amplifiers in order to measure noise below the amplifier noise level. From this we measure the photon-noise limited noise-equivalent power of the detector to be 6.6 × 10-17 W Hz-1/2 when observing a 77-Kelvin source.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Millimeter Waves and THz Technology Workshop (UCMMT), 2015 8th UK, Europe, China |
Publisher | IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers |
Pages | 1-4 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-4673-7434-7, 978-1-4673-7433-0 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 28 Apr 2016 |
MoE publication type | A4 Article in a conference publication |
Event | UK, Europe, China Millimeter Waves and THz Technology Workshop - National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom Duration: 14 Sept 2015 → 15 Sept 2015 Conference number: 8 |
Conference
Conference | UK, Europe, China Millimeter Waves and THz Technology Workshop |
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Abbreviated title | UCMMT |
Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Cardiff |
Period | 14/09/15 → 15/09/15 |
Keywords
- absorption cooling
- electrons
- infrared detectors
- millimeter waves
- slot antennas
- strained silicon
- terahertz waves