Photon noise limited radiation detection with lens-antenna coupled microwave kinetic inductance detectors

Microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) have shown great potential for sub-mm instrumentation because of the high scalability of the technology. Here, we demonstrate for the first time in the sub-mm band (0.1–2 mm) a photon noise limited performance of a small antenna coupled MKID detector array and we describe the relation between photon...

Influence of the direct response on the heterodyne sensitivity of hot electron bolometer mixers

We present a detailed experimental study of the direct detection effect in a small volume (0.15??m×1??m×3.5?nm) quasioptical NbN phonon cooled hot electron bolometer mixer at 673?GHz. We find that the small signal noise temperature, relevant for an astronomical observation, is 20% lower than the noise temperature obtained using 300 and 77?K...