Among the thermoelectrical materials known so far, n-type semiconducting materials have a much higher thermoelectrical figure of merit ( Z) than do their p-type counterparts. This keeps the overall figure low for a couple at all temperatures. At room temperature the best Z is about in the Bi-Sb-Te system. At liquid nitrogen temperatures, a suitable composition can deliver and further improvement is possible with the application of a magnetic field. A combination of n-BiSb with a YBCO passive leg allows very high thermoelectrical power to be generated below for incident radiation. The photo-thermoelectrical bolometer's design is such that this power drives the charge carriers around a circuit fabricated from YBCO-BiSb elements. The YBCO leg is inductively linked via a closely positioned copper film coil and connected to a remote ac bridge and an electronic read-out system. A specific detectivity of and a response time of the order of milliseconds, controlled basically by the inductive property of the superconducting element and its resistance in the mixed state, should be easily achieved. This paper presents an ab initio analysis of the new thick bolometer with a responsivity of about .
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