Search

A bolometer, which is based on a superconductor–insulator–normal metal–insulator–superconductor (SINIS) structure, integrated into a twin-slot antenna with a central frequency of 90 GHz, and connected with a superconducting microwave readout resonator, has been designed, fabricated, and experimentally studied. Such an elementary cell is designed for the multi-element array of a high-sensitive radioastronomic receiver, in which the readout from a great number of channels is performed by a single coaxial cable instead of separate wires and amplifier in each channel.

Bolometers based on the superconductor–insulator–normal-metal–insulator–superconductor (SINIS) structure with an absorber suspended above the substrate are developed, fabricated, and experimentally studied in the terahertz frequency range. In contrast to the previously studied bolometers with an absorber located directly on the substrate, the real bolometric mode of operation is achieved, i.e., there is more than one excited electron per quantum of electromagnetic radiation (the quantum efficiency is larger than 1). A quantum efficiency of fifteen electrons per quantum of radiation with a frequency of 350 GHz was achieved in the studied bolometers.

Two types arrays of annular half-wave and electrically small antennas with typical sizes of the elements corresponding to 1/10 of the wavelength at SubTHz band with integrated superconductor–insulator–normal metal–insulator–superconductor (SINIS) bolometers have been developed, fabricated and experimentally studied. We performed numerical modeling of the full structure and use additional reference channels in experimental studies to enhance the accuracy of the spectral response estimations of receiving arrays. In experiments three reference channels were used for normalization of the spectral response: a pyroelectric detector outside the cryostat, and two cold channels—a RuO2 bolometer and on-chip thermometer comprising series array of NIS-junctions.