Nanobolometer with ultralow noise equivalent power

Published

October 11, 2019

Author(s)

Roope J. Kokkoniemi, Joonas Govenius, Visa Vesterinen, Russell Lake, A M. Gunyho, K-Y Tan, S Simbierowicz, Leif Gronberg, J Lehtinen, M Prunnila, Juha Hassel, Antti Lamminen, O P. Saira, Mikko Mottonen

Abstract

Since the introduction of bolometers more than a century ago, they have been used in various applications ranging from chemical sensors, consumer electronics, and security to particle physics and astronomy. However, faster bolometers with lower noise are of great interest from the fundamental point of view and to find new use-cases for this versatile concept. We demonstrate a nanobolometer that exhibits roughly an order of magnitude lower noise equivalent power, 20zW/√Hz, than previously reported for any bolometer. Importantly, it is more than an order of magnitude faster than other low-noise bolometers, with a time constant of 30 μs at 60zW/√Hz. These results suggest a calorimetric energy resolution of 0.3 zJ = h x 0.4 THz with a time constant of 30 μs. Further development of this nanobolometer may render it a promising candidate for future applications requiring extremely low noise and high speed such as those in quantum technology and terahertz photon counting.

Citation

Communications Physics

Volume

2

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-019-0225-6

Local Download

Keywords

Nanobolometer, ultralow noise equivalent power, bolometers, chemical sensors, consumer electronics, security, particle physics, astronomy, quantum technology, terahertz photon counting

Citation

Kokkoniemi, R. , Govenius, J. , Vesterinen, V. , Lake, R. , Gunyho, A. , Tan, K. , Simbierowicz, S. , Gronberg, L. , Lehtinen, J. , Prunnila, M. , Hassel, J. , Lamminen, A. , Saira, O. and Mottonen, M. (2019), Nanobolometer with ultralow noise equivalent power, Communications Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-019-0225-6, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=926209 (Accessed October 10, 2025)