High Tc superconducting IR detectors

This paper discusses infrared detectors based upon high transition temperature (high Tc) superconductors which include superconducting transition edge microbolometers, nonequilibrium photoeffect detectors and photon-assisted tunneling detectors. Superconducting transition edge microbolometers offer moderate performance as individual detectors; a potential application is for large two-dimensional staring focal plane arrays. Experimental search for the nonequilibrium photoeffect in high Tc superconductors reveals unwanted bolometric signals. Photo-assisted tunneling in theory provides very high performance, but no experimental data are available