Frequency Response Analysis of Backside Illuminated Free-Membrane Type IR Superconducting Bolometer

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed frequency response analysis of a backside illuminated YBCO superconducting bolometer, highlighting its design, modeling, and advantages over front-illuminated devices for IR detection.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive equivalent circuit model for the backside illuminated bolometer and demonstrates its benefits for wide-band IR absorption without degrading superconducting properties.

Findings

The backside illuminated design enhances IR absorption efficiency.

The equivalent circuit model accurately predicts the bolometer's frequency response.

Experimental results align with the analytical model and outperform front-side designs.

Abstract

The IR response of a backside illuminated type Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (YBCO) transition-edge bolometer (TEB) in a free-membrane configuration is measured and analyzed. The analysis is based on a comprehensive equivalent circuit model for the bolometer structure considering all the thermal parameters of the device. The detector is made using a 450nm superconductive YBCO thin film grown on about 100 um thick crystalline SrTiO3 (STO) substrate using an optimized low cost Metal Organic Deposition (MOD) technique. The backside illuminated structure provided a basis for freely utilizing different IR absorber materials and structures on the backside of the bolometer in order to get wide band high radiation absorption coefficient for the device, while also avoiding any negative effect of the deposition of the absorber layer on the YBCO thin film properties. The obtained analytical and experimental results for the backside illuminated bolometer were also compared with the results of the previously reported front-side illuminated bolometers.