This paper reviews and summarizes the progress in research on high-T c superconducting infrared bolometers since the discovery of high-temperature superconductor (HTSC) materials. After mentioning previous review articles and their particular themes in the introduction, we recall bolometer basics in section 2, where key parameters are presented and design principles summarized. The latter include incident radiation to HTSC thermometer coupling techniques (absorber and antenna approaches) and the thermal balance inside the active region. Section 3 (which forms the largest part of the article) is devoted to medium and near-infrared transition edge bolometers (0.8-20 µm wavelength range), covering both monolithic and composite (absorber coupled) devices. The main landmarks and state-of-the-art devices are described in the order of the increasing degree of technological complexity (thick substrates, thinned or suspended substrates, micromachined silicon-based structures), while keeping in mind the sensitivity versus time response compromise and the aimed competitiveness with photon detectors. The last section treats far-infrared (antenna coupled) hot electron bolometers (HEBs), whose emergence has benefited from newly developed superconducting nanostructures and which are promising candidates for terahertz heterodyne detection. Finally, recent results on both HTSC and (more mature) low-T c HEBs are given.
International audienceHigh-T-C hot electron bolometers (HEB) are promising THz mixers due to their expected wide bandwidth, large mixing gain, and low intrinsic noise. To achieve this goal, 0.6-mu m-size constrictions were patterned on YBaCuO-based, 10-40-nm-thick films grown on (100) MgO substrates, which as previously reported, exhibited good DC superconducting properties. In this paper, we have simulated the DC and mixer characteristics of YBaCuO HEBs with a hot spot model usually dedicated to low-T-C devices. For a 100 nm x 100 nm x 10 nm constriction, the expected double sideband noise temperature T-N is 2000 K for 5 mu W local oscillator (LO) power (G = -13.5 dB conversion gain). For a larger (but more realistic according to YBaCuO aging effects) 600 nm x 1000 nm x 35 nm constriction, T-N = 1300 K at 200 mu W LO power (G = -12 dB). This approach is expected to allow optimizing the operation of the HEB constriction coupled to a THz planar antenna
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