http://antonirogalski.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Infrared-detectors-Status-and-trends.pdf

Infrared detectors: status and trends

This review describes bolometric detectors for infrared and millimeter waves. The introduction sketches the history of modern bolometers, indicates how they fit into the more general class of thermal detectors, and describes the types of applications for which they are the optimum solution. Section I is a tutorial introduction to the elementary theories of bolometer response, of thermal radiation, and of bolometer noise. Important results are derived from the laws of thermal physics in the simplest possible way. The more rigorous theories of bolometer response and noise that are required for quantitative understanding and optimization are then summarized. This material is intended to provide the background required by workers who wish to choose the appropriate bolometer technology for a given measurement, or to evaluate a novel technology. Section II, then describes the various components of an efficient bolometer and gives details of the fabrication and performance of modern bolometers. This discussion f...

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Bolometers for infrared and millimeter waves

Sensitive thermal detectors should be useful for measuring very small energy pulses, such as those produced by the absorption of X-ray photons. The measurement uncertainty can be very small, making the technique promising for high resolution nondispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The limits to the energy resolution of such thermal detectors are derived and used to find the resolution to be expected for a detector suitable for X-ray spectroscopy in the 100 eV to 10,000 eV range. If there is no noise in the thermalization of the X-ray, resolution better than 1 eV full width at half maximum is possible for detectors operating at 0.1 K. Energy loss in the conversion of the photon energy to heat is a potential problem. The loss mechanisms may include emission of photons or electrons, or the trapping of energy in long lived metastable states. Fluctuations in the phonon spectrum could also limit the resolution if phonon relaxation times are very long. Conceptual solutions are given for each of these possible problems.

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Thermal detectors as X-ray spectrometers

A design analysis is given for a bolometric infrared detector that uses the resistive transition of a high‐temperature superconductor as the temperature sensing element, and liquid nitrogen (LN) as the coolant. It is shown that for highly oriented c‐axis films, the measured low‐frequency noise causes little or no degradation of the performance. With the incoming radiation chopped at 10 Hz, noise equivalent powers (NEP) in the range (1–20)×10−12 W Hz−1/2 should be achievable. These values compare favorably with the NEP of other detectors operating at or above LN temperatures for wavelengths greater than 20 μm.

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Feasibility of the high Tc superconducting bolometer

We report the design and performance of 300-mK composite bolometers that use micromesh absorbers and support structures patterned from thin films of low-stress silicon nitride. The small geometrical filling factor of the micromesh absorber provides 20× reduction in heat capacity and cosmic ray cross section relative to a solid absorber with no loss in IR-absorption efficiency. The support structure is mechanically robust and has a thermal conductance, G < 2 × 10^(−11) W/K, which is four times smaller than previously achieved at 300 mK. The temperature rise of the bolometer is measured with a neutron transmutation doped germanium thermistor attached to the absorbing mesh. The dispersion in electrical and thermal parameters of a sample of 12 bolometers optimized for the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Infrared Experiment is ±7% in R (T), ±5% in optical efficiency, and ±4% in G.

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Composite infrared bolometers with Si_3N_4 micromesh absorbers

A new type of bolometer detector for the millimeter and submillimeter spectral range is described. The bolometer is constructed of silicon using integrated circuit fabrication techniques. Ion implantation is used to give controlled resistance vs temperature properties as well as extremely low 1/f noise contacts. The devices have been tested between 4.2 and 0.3 K. The best electrical NEP measured is 4 x 10 to the -16th W/Hz to the 1/2 at 0.35 K between 1- and 10-Hz modulation frequency. This device had a detecting area of 0.25 sq cm and a time constant of 20 msec at a bath temperature of 0.35 K.

Monolithic Silicon Bolometers

A new type of bolometer detector for the millimeter and submillimeter spectral range is described. The bolometer is constructed of silicon using integrated circuit fabrication techniques. Ion implantation is used to give controlled resistance vs temperature properties as well as extremely low 1/f noise contacts. The devices have been tested between 4.2 and 0.3 K. The best electrical NEP measured is 4 × 10 - 1 6 W/Hz at 0.35 K between 1- and 10-Hz modulation frequency. This device had a detecting area of 0.25 cm2 and a time constant of 20 msec at a bath temperature of 0.35 K.

Monolithic silicon bolometers

It is believed that X-ray emission from clusters of galaxies represents thermal bremsstrahlung from a hot plasma. According to Sunyaev and Zel'dovich (1972), the plasma column density and temperature derived from this model imply a measurable distortion of the cosmic background radiation (CBR) in the cluster direction. This distortion results from the Compton scattering of the CBR photons by the electrons in the plasma, resulting in an average increase of each photon. This process, known as the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, is photon conserving and 'shifts' the CBR spectrum to higher frequencies. The result is a decrease of flux at frequencies below 7.5 per cm (the Rayleigh-Jeans region), and an increase above. The investigation is concerned with measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect at frequencies in the range from 3 to 10 per cm. Attention is given to the employed observing and analysis technique, and an initial null result for the cluster Abell 1795.

A. D. Jeffries

Papers

Monolithic Silicon Bolometers

Monolithic silicon bolometers

A search for the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect at millimeter wavelengths

The MIT prototype gravitational wave detector.