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Performance of horn-coupled transition edge sensors for L- and S-band optical detection on the SAFARI instrument

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Conference Object

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Authors

Goldie, DJ 
Glowacka, DM 
Withington, S 
Chen, J 
Ade, PAR 

Abstract

We describe the geometry, architecture, dark- and optical performance of ultra-low-noise transition edge sensors as THz detectors for the SAFARI instrument. The TESs are fabricated from superconducting Mo/Au bilayers coupled to impedance-matched superconducting ß-phase Ta thin-film absorbers. The detectors have phonon-limited dark noise equivalent powers of order 0.5 - 1.0 aW/Hz and saturation powers of order 20 - 40 fW. The low temperature test configuration incorporating micro-machined backshorts is also described, and construction and typical performance characteristics for the optical load are shown. We report preliminary measurements of the optical performance of these TESs for two SAFARI bands; L-band at 110 - 210 µm and S-band 34 - 60 µm .

Description

Keywords

Transition edge sensor, far-infrared bolometer, optical characterization, ultra-low noise

Journal Title

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Conference Name

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation

Journal ISSN

0277-786X
1996-756X

Volume Title

Publisher

SPIE
Sponsorship
European Space Agency