Publication Date:
2019-07-13
Description:
To determine the lowest attainable phonon noise equivalent power (NEP) for membrane-isolation bolometers, we fabricated and measured the thermal conductance of suspended Si3N4 beams with different geometries via a noise thermometry technique. We measured beam cross-sectional areas ranging from 0.35 x 0.5 (micro)m(sup 2) to 135 x 1.0 (micro)m(sup 2) and beam lengths ranging from (micro)m to 8300 (micro)m. The measurements directly imply that membrane-isolation bolometers are capable of reaching a phonon noise equivalent power (NEP) of 4 x 10(sup -20)W/Hz(sup 1)/O . This NEP adequate for the Background-Limited Infrared-Submillimeter Spectrograph (BLISS) proposed for the Japanese SPICA observatory, and adequate for NASA's SAFIR observatory, a 10-meter, 4 K telescope to be deployed at L2. Further, we measured the heat capacity of a suspended Si〈base〉3N〈base〉4 membrane and show how this result implies that one can make membrane-isolation bolometers with a response time which is fast enough for BLISS.
Keywords:
Instrumentation and Photography
Type:
SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation; May 24, 2006 - May 31, 2006; Orlando, FL; United States
Format:
text
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