Demonstration of Ultrasensitive KIDs for Future THz Space Borne Polarimeters
Stephen J.C. Yates (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)
Alejandro Pascual Laguna (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Centro de Astrobiología - CSIC)
Willem Jellema (University of Oxford, SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)
Edgar Castillo-Dominguez (Cardiff University, SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)
Lorenza Ferrari (SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)
Bram Lap (University of Oxford, SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)
Vignesh Murugesan (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
David Thoen (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Jochem J.A. Baselmans (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Centro de Astrobiología - CSIC)
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Abstract
We present measurements and simulations of the polarization purity of leaky lens-antenna coupled microwave kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) at 1.5 THz. From polarized phase and amplitude beam pattern measurements we find the integrated cross-polarization ratio to be at –21.5 dB for 1 f#λ spatial sampling. The measurements agree well with the theoretical description which is based on a combination of in-transmission simulation of the antenna feed, and an in-reception analysis of the antenna-KID system. A neutral density filter limited the power per detector to around 500 fW, enabling these measurements to be taken on detectors that in a low background have a measured noise equivalent power of 5–7×10−20 W/√Hz. These combined measurements show that these detectors are excellent candidates for large scale and high-performance imaging polarimetric instruments.