Evaporative-cooled solid-state bolometer and single-photon detector
View Patent ↗An evaporatively cooled device and a system including the same. In some embodiments, the system includes an oligolayer conductive sheet; a superconductor; a tunneling barrier, between the oligolayer conductive sheet and the superconductor; and a bias circuit, configured to apply a bias voltage across the tunneling barrier, the bias voltage being less than a gap voltage of the superconductor and greater than one-half of the gap voltage of the superconductor.
1. A system, comprising:
an oligolayer conductive sheet;
a superconductor;
a tunneling barrier, between the oligolayer conductive sheet and the superconductor; and
a bias circuit, configured to apply a bias voltage across the tunneling barrier, the bias voltage being less than a gap voltage of the superconductor and greater than one-half of the gap voltage of the superconductor.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the tunneling barrier comprises an oligolayer insulating sheet.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the oligolayer insulating sheet has fewer than 10 atomic layers.
4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the oligolayer insulating sheet is a monolayer insulating sheet.
5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the oligolayer insulating sheet is composed of hexagonal boron nitride.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the tunneling barrier comprises an oligolayer semiconductor sheet.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the tunneling barrier is composed of molybdenum disulfide.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the oligolayer conductive sheet has fewer than 10 atomic layers.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the oligolayer conductive sheet is a monolayer sheet.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the oligolayer conductive sheet is composed of graphene.
11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the superconductor is amorphous.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the superconductor is crystalline.
13. The system of claim 1 , comprising:
a first normal-insulating-superconducting junction comprising:
the oligolayer conductive sheet,
the superconductor, and
the tunneling barrier; and
further comprising a second normal-insulating-superconducting junction comprising:
the oligolayer conductive sheet,
a superconductor, and
a tunneling barrier.
14. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a refrigerator configured to cool:
the oligolayer conductive sheet,
the superconductor, and
the tunneling barrier,
to a first temperature, the first temperature being less than 3 K.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the system is configured, upon the application of the bias voltage, to cool the oligolayer conductive sheet to a second temperature, the second temperature being less than 0.8 of the first temperature.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the second temperature is less than 0.5 of the first temperature.
17. The system of claim 1 , comprising a transistor, the transistor comprising a channel and a gate,
wherein the oligolayer conductive sheet is configured to operate as the channel of the transistor.
18. The system of claim 1 , comprising a bolometer comprising:
a Josephson junction, the Josephson junction having a gap coupled to electrons of the oligolayer conductive sheet.
19. The system of claim 1 , comprising a photon detector comprising a circuit configured to measure thermal noise in the oligolayer conductive sheet.