The kinetic inductance detector (KID) — also known as a microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) — is a type of

superconducting Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases g ...

photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...

detector capable of counting single photons whilst simultaneously measuring their energy and arrival time to high precision. They were first developed by scientists at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

and the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

in 2003. These devices operate at

cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th International Institute of Refrigeration's (IIR) International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington, DC in 1971) endorsed a univers ...

temperatures, typically below 1

kelvin The kelvin (symbol: K) is the base unit for temperature in the International System of Units (SI). The Kelvin scale is an absolute temperature scale that starts at the lowest possible temperature (absolute zero), taken to be 0 K. By de ...

. They are being developed for high-sensitivity

astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

detection for frequencies ranging from the

far-infrared Far infrared (FIR) or long wave refers to a specific range within the infrared spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. It encompasses radiation with wavelengths ranging from 15 μm ( micrometers) to 1 mm, which corresponds to a freque ...

X-rays An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

Principle of operation

Photons incident on a strip of

material break

Cooper pairs In condensed matter physics, a Cooper pair or BCS pair (Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer pair) is a pair of electrons (or other fermions) bound together at low temperatures in a certain manner first described in 1956 by American physicist Leon Coope ...

and create excess

quasiparticles In condensed matter physics, a quasiparticle is a concept used to describe a collective behavior of a group of particles that can be treated as if they were a single particle. Formally, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely relate ...

. The

kinetic inductance Kinetic inductance is the manifestation of the inertial mass of mobile charge carriers in alternating electric fields as an equivalent series inductance. Kinetic inductance is observed in high carrier mobility conductors (e.g. superconductors) and ...

of the superconducting strip is inversely proportional to the density of Cooper pairs, and thus the kinetic inductance increases upon photon absorption. This inductance is combined with a

capacitor In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

to form a

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequency, frequencies between 300&n ...

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a reso ...

whose resonant frequency changes with the absorption of photons. This resonator-based readout is useful for developing large-format detector arrays, as each KID can be addressed by a single microwave tone and many detectors can be measured using a single broadband microwave channel, a technique known as

frequency-division multiplexing In telecommunications, frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) is a technique by which the total bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth available in a communication channel, communication medium is divided into a series of non-overlapping freque ...

Applications

KIDs are being developed for a range of

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

applications, including millimeter and submillimeter wavelength detection at the

Caltech Submillimeter Observatory The Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) was a 10.4-meter (34 ft) diameter submillimeter wavelength telescope situated alongside the 15-meter (49 ft) James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) at Mauna Kea Observatories. Beginning in 1986 ...

, the

Atacama Pathfinder Experiment The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) is a radio telescope 5,064 meters above sea level, at the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western Sou ...

(APEX) on the

Llano de Chajnantor Observatory Llano de Chajnantor Observatory is the name for a group of astronomy, astronomical observatory, observatories located at an altitude of over 4,800 m (15,700 ft) in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The site is in the Antofagasta Reg ...

, the CCAT Observatory, the

Large Millimeter Telescope The Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) (, or GTM), officially the Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano (), is the world's largest single-aperture telescope in its frequency range, built for observing radio waves in the wave lengths from app ...

, and the

IRAM 30-m The IRAM 30m telescope is a radio telescope, located in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, Spain. It is operated by the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimetre Range (IRAM) for observing astronomical objects in the millimetre range of the ...

telescope. They are also being developed for optical and near-infrared detection at the

Palomar Observatory The Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in the Palomar Mountains of San Diego County, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...

. KIDs have also flown on two balloon-borne telescopes, OLIMPO in 2018 and

BLAST Blast or The Blast may refer to: *Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner *Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front *A planned explosion in a mine, ...

-TNG in 2020. They are also foreseen for the spectrometers of the planned PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) telescope, which NASA selected as one of two potential future space telescopes. KIDs have also gained popularity as a more compact, lower cost, and less complex alternative to transition edge sensors.

References

External links

SRON website on kinetic inductance detectors

YouTube video on kinetic inductance from MIT
* {{cite journal , last1=Champlin , first1=K.S. , last2=Armstrong , first2=D.B. , last3=Gunderson , first3=P.D. , title=Charge carrier inertia in semiconductors , journal=Proceedings of the IEEE , publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , volume=52 , issue=6 , year=1964 , issn=0018-9219 , doi=10.1109/proc.1964.3049 , pages=677–685 Superconducting detectors Radiometry Sensors Particle detectors

Principle of operation

Applications

See also

References

External links