Silicon hot-electron bolometers with single-electron transistor readout
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- 作者：Thomas R. Stevenson ; Wen-Ting Hsieh ; Robert R. Mitchell ; Hal D. Isenberg ; Carl M. Stahle ; Nga T. Cao ; Gideon Schneider ; Douglas E. Travers ; S. Harvey Moseley ; Edward J. Wollack and Ross M. Henry
- 关键词：Thermistor ; Variable range hopping ; Coulomb gap ; Terahertz ; Microcalorimeter ; Antenna-coupled detectors
- 刊名：Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
- 出版年：2006
- 出版时间：15 April 2006
- 年：2006
- 卷：559
- 期：2
- 页码：591-593
- 全文大小：130 K
文摘
With the goal of making high-sensitivity bolometers for low-background measurements in the far-infrared or submillimeter, we have made small silicon thermistors, which act as hot-electron bolometers, with integrated single-electron transistors for readout amplifiers. Semiconductors doped just below a metal–insulator transition can make highly sensitive thermistors that have been used as thermometers in X-ray microcalorimeters and FIR bolometer arrays. In such arrays, thermal isolation is engineered by supporting the absorber and thermometer on a membrane. However, electron–phonon decoupling in doped silicon can be made the dominant thermal isolation by reducing device volume, potentially allowing a smaller thermal conductance and a more sensitive bolometer. A key feature is that, while its DC resistance is very high, the thermistor's surface impedance at terahertz frequencies is conveniently low, making feasible efficient antenna coupling of radiation into the electron system. Radio-frequency single-electron transistors integrated with the thermistors have sufficiently low input capacitance to offer high-speed readout of the high impedance detectors.