Abstract
Polarization sensitive, microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) are under development for the next generation BLAST instrument (BLAST-TNG). BLAST-TNG is a balloon-borne submillimeter polarimeter designed to study magnetic fields in diffuse dust regions and molecular clouds. We present the design and performance of feedhorn-coupled, dual-polarization sensitive MKIDs fabricated from TiN/Ti multilayer films, which have been optimized for the 250 \(\upmu \)m band. Measurements show effective selection of linear polarization and good electrical isolation between the orthogonally crossed X and Y detectors within a single spatial pixel. The detector cross-polar coupling is \(<\)3 %. Passband measurements are presented, which demonstrate that the desired band-edges (1.0–1.4 THz) have been achieved. We find a near linear response to the optical load from a blackbody source, which has been observed in previous devices fabricated from TiN. Blackbody-coupled noise measurements demonstrate that the sensitivity of the detectors is limited by photon noise when the optical load is greater than 1 pW.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by NASA through Grant No. NNX13AE50G. Brad Dober is supported through the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (Grant No. NNX12AL58H).
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Dober, B., Austermann, J.A., Beall, J.A. et al. Optical Demonstration of THz, Dual-Polarization Sensitive Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors. J Low Temp Phys 184, 173–179 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-015-1434-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-015-1434-3