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A Hot-electron Direct Detector for Radioastronomy
- Publication Year :
- 1999
- Publisher :
- United States: NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI), 1999.
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Abstract
- A hot-electron transition-edge superconducting bolometer with adjustable thermal relaxation speed is proposed. The bolometer contacts are made from a superconductor with high critical temperature which blocks the thermal diffusion of hot carriers into the contacts. Thus electron-phonon interaction is the only mechanism for heat removal. The speed of thermal relaxation for hot electrons in a nanometer-size superconducting bolometer with T(sub c) = 100-300 mK is controlled by the elastic electron mean free path l. The relaxation rate behaves as T(sup 4)l at subkelvin temperatures and can be reduced by a factor of 10-100 by decreasing 1. Then an antenna- or wave guide-coupled bolometer with a time constant approx. = 10(exp -3) to 10(exp -4) s will exhibit photon-noise limited performance at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The bolometer will have a figure-of-merit NEPtau = 10(exp -22) - 10(exp -21) W/Hz at 100 mK which is 10(exp 3) to 10(exp 4) times better (ie: smaller) than that of a state-of-the-art bolometer. A tremendous increase in speed and sensitivity will have a significant impact for observational mapping applications.
- Subjects :
- Astronomy
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- NASA Technical Reports
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsnas.20000057408
- Document Type :
- Report