Semiconducting YBaCuO thin films for uncooled infrared bolometers

Abstract

We have fabricated and measured the performance of semiconducting YBaCuO thin-film thermometers on silicon for uncooled bolometric applications. Our YBaCuO thermometers have revealed a change in resistance with respect to temperature (dR/dT) as high as 8.2×103 Ω/K at T=294 K and the temperature coefficient of resistance as high as 3.1% K−1 over a 60 K range around room temperature which implies an excellent bolometric response. At 294 K the thermometers had a noise voltage of 0.75 μV/Hz1/2 at the frequency of 30 Hz and the bias current of 1 μA. Using the data above, we calculated that semiconducting YBaCuO bolometers would have a responsivity of 5.5×104 V/W and a detectivity D* as high as 1.3×108 cm Hz1/2/W for 1 μA bias current if integrated with a typical thermal isolation structure.