Millimeter-Wave Response of All Metal-Organic Deposited YBCO Transition Edge Bolometer

Abstract

We report on the response of a monolithic high Tc transition-edge bolometer to about 3-mm-wave for the first time. The detector structure consisting of 400 nm YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) film on buffered Yttria Stabilized Zirconia substrate without any coupled antenna, shows bolometric type responsivity to the 3-mm-waves radiation at its transition temperature. The YBCO thin film and Ce0.9La0.1O2 buffer layer are both fabricated by the metal-organic deposition method. The meander line pattern of the bolometer is designed for obtaining maximum absorption and responsivity possible when the polarized radiation of the source is aligned with the pattern. Meander lines are 50 micrometers wide and 1.5 mm long. We have measured amplitude and phase of the response versus modulation frequency of the detector to the linearly polarized 95 GHz source, and the detector was biased at 5 distinct temperatures at the transition corresponding to five different electrical conductivities of the YBCO film. When the meander lines of the device are parallel to the incident beam polarization, the YBCO pattern is speculated to act as a dissipative antenna resulting in higher absorption leading to high magnitude of the response as observed. The results from the measured phase of the response versus modulation frequency are also in agreement with the discussed absorbed mechanism. The absorption of the YBCO pattern is also measured to depend on the electrical conductivity of the YBCO film and our results show that there is an optimum electrical conductivity for having maximum absorption for this detector. Simulation results for this structure confirm the experiments showing that at electrical conductivity value of 1.33 × 10 5 S/m we have the maximum absorption for our device. These observations promise design of versatile THz and millimeter-wave detectors with potentials for applications in medical and security imaging.

Strain Effects of Absorbing Layer on Superconducting Properties of a High-Flux Neutron Detector

“…From Table 3, the superconducting transition slope dR/dT can be seen to decrease for pixelated samples. The numeric values of dR/dT are in the order of 2-8 Ω/K, which is three orders of magnitude lower than values measured in similar meander structures [6]. This is due to the secondary current path-way in the overlaying Ag meander and is therefore not comparable to the values of a final detector design.…”

“…The Ag contact layer is deposited directly on top of the superconducting layer with no isolation layer in between. The superconducting material in the samples is a ceramic superconductor of a type similar to that used in [6].…”

“…There are only five materials with neutron absorption cross sections sufficiently high for use in effective neutron detection. These are 3 He, 6 Li, 10 B, 157 Gd and 113 Cd. 6 Li is often used for scintillator type detectors as described by N. J. Rhodes [1].…”

“…These are 3 He, 6 Li, 10 B, 157 Gd and 113 Cd. 6 Li is often used for scintillator type detectors as described by N. J. Rhodes [1]. 157 Gd and 113 Cd have high cross-sections, but also exerts γ products from the absorption reaction.…”

0.1 THz Imaging with a Monolithic High-Tc Superconducting Transition-Edge Detector

“…In addition, the amplitude of the response decreases by increasing the modulation frequency that can not be avoided in a thermal detector. The behavior of the voltage amplitude and phase response versus modulation frequencies for these kind of bolometers were previously discussed in detail in [28]. In all measurements the device is current biased by 500 µA.…”