2019/09/30 by Gil-Ho Lee, Gil‐Ho Lee, Dmitri K. Efetov +11 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Bolometer #Condensed matter physics #Detector #Graphene #Johnson–Nyquist noise #Josephson effect #Materials science #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Microwave #Nanotechnology #Noise-equivalent power #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photodetector #Physics #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Superconducting and THz Device Technology #Superconductivity #Terahertz radiation #Thermal conductivity #astro-ph.IM #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.supr-con #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2752-4
published as Nature 586, 42 (2020) · 8 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2020/09/30 · arxiv created 2020/11/05 · arxiv updated 2020/11/06 · openalex created_date 2020/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Sensitive microwave detectors are critical instruments in radioastronomy, dark matter axion searches, and superconducting quantum information science. The conventional strategy towards higher-sensitivity bolometry is to nanofabricate an ever-smaller device to augment the thermal response. However, this direction is increasingly more difficult to obtain efficient photon coupling and maintain the material properties in a device with a large surface-to-volume ratio. Here we advance this concept to an ultimately thin bolometric sensor based on monolayer graphene. To utilize its minute electronic specific heat and thermal conductivity, we develop a superconductor-graphene-superconductor (SGS) Josephson junction bolometer embedded in a microwave resonator of resonant frequency 7.9 GHz with over 99% coupling efficiency. From the dependence of the Josephson switching current on the operating temperature, charge density, input power, and frequency, we demonstrate a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 7 × 10-19 W/Hz1/2, corresponding to an energy resolution of one single photon at 32 GHz and reaching the fundamental limit imposed by intrinsic thermal fluctuation at 0.19 K.