A method to measure superconducting transition temperature of microwave kinetic inductance detector by changing power of readout microwaves

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to determine the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) by analyzing quasiparticle lifetime changes induced by varying readout microwave power, applicable to various MKID types.

Contribution

The paper proposes a new technique to measure Tc of MKIDs through readout microwave power variation and quasiparticle lifetime analysis, providing an alternative to traditional temperature-based methods.

Findings

Method accurately estimates Tc in aluminum MKIDs.

Results align with conventional Tc measurement techniques.

Applicable to hybrid-type MKIDs and other configurations.

Abstract

A microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) is a cutting-edge superconducting detector, and its principle is based on a superconducting resonator circuit. The superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of the MKID is an important parameter because various MKID characterization parameters depend on it. In this paper, we propose a method to measure the Tc of the MKID by changing the applied power of the readout microwaves. A small fraction of the readout power is deposited in the MKID, and the number of quasiparticles in the MKID increases with this power. Furthermore, the quasiparticle lifetime decreases with the number of quasiparticles. Therefore, we can measure the relation between the quasiparticle lifetime and the detector response by rapidly varying the readout power. From this relation, we estimate the intrinsic quasiparticle lifetime. This lifetime is theoretically modeled by Tc, the physical temperature of the MKID device, and other known parameters. We obtain Tc by comparing the measured lifetime with that acquired using the theoretical model. Using an MKID fabricated with aluminum, we demonstrate this method at a 0.3 K operation. The results are consistent with those obtained by Tc measured by monitoring the transmittance of the readout microwaves with the variation in the device temperature. The method proposed in this paper is applicable to other types, such as a hybrid-type MKID.