1. A 25-micron single photon sensitive kinetic inductance detector
- Author
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Day, Peter K., Cothard, Nicholas F., Albert, Christopher, Foote, Logan, Kane, Elijah, Eom, Byeong H., Thakur, Ritoban Basu, Janssen, Reinier M. J., Beyer, Andrew, Echternach, Pierre, van Berkel, Sven, Hailey-Dunsheath, Steven, Stevenson, Thomas R., Dabironezare, Shahab, Baselmans, Jochem J. A., Glenn, Jason, Bradford, C. Matt, and Leduc, Henry G.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors - Abstract
We report measurements characterizing the performance of a kinetic inductance detector array designed for a wavelength of 25 microns and very low optical background level suitable for applications such as a far-infrared instrument on a cryogenically cooled space telescope. In a pulse counting mode of operation at low optical flux, the detectors can resolve individual 25-micron photons. In an integrating mode, the detectors remain photon noise limited over more than six orders of magnitude in absorbed power from 70 zW to 200 fW, with a limiting NEP of 4.6 x 10^-20 W/rtHz at 1 Hz. In addition, the detectors are highly stable with flat power spectra under optical load down to 1 mHz. Operational parameters of the detector are determined including the efficiency of conversion of the incident optical power into quasiparticles in the aluminum absorbing element and the quasiparticle self-recombination constant., Comment: 35 pages, 18 figures
- Published
- 2024