Superconducting kinetic inductance bolometer

The authors are developing a bolometer with a temperature sensor based on the temperature dependence of the inductance of a superconducting microstrip line. As a first step in exploring this idea experimentally, they have designed experiments to test only the temperature sensor. The experimental devices are all-niobium inductance thermometers fabricated on silicon substrates which have been deeply etched to provide areas of relative thermal isolation. The ground plane superconductor is thin enough that its kinetic inductance dominates the audio frequency impedance of the stripline near its critical temperature, at 0.9T/sub c/. This differential thermometer uses a commercial SQUID as the preamplifier. Their preliminary results demonstrate a proof-of-principle for the thermometer design