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We report photon-noise limited performance of horn-coupled, aluminum lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors at millimeter wavelengths. The detectors are illuminated by a millimeter-wave source that uses an active multiplier chain to produce radiation between 140 and 160 GHz. We feed the multiplier with either amplified broadband noise or a continuous-wave tone from

We report photon-noise limited performance of horn-coupled, aluminum lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors at millimeter wavelengths. The detectors are illuminated by a millimeter-wave source that uses an active multiplier chain to produce radiation between 140 and 160 GHz. We feed the multiplier with either amplified broadband noise or a continuous-wave tone from a microwave signal generator. We demonstrate that the detector response over a 40 dB range of source power is well-described by a simple model that considers the number of quasiparticles. The detector noise-equivalent power (NEP) is dominated by photon noise when the absorbed power is greater than approximately 1 pW, which corresponds to NEP ≈ 2 × 10-17 W Hz-1/2, referenced to absorbed power. At higher source power levels, we observe the relationships between noise and power expected from the photon statistics of the source signal: NEP ∝ P for broadband (chaotic) illumination and NEP ∝ P1/2 for continuous-wave (coherent) illumination.

ContributorsFlanigan, D. (Author) / McCarrick, H. (Author) / Jones, G. (Author) / Johnson, B. R. (Author) / Abitbol, M. H. (Author) / Ade, P. (Author) / Araujo, D. (Author) / Bradford, K. (Author) / Cantor, R. (Author) / Che, George (Author) / Day, P. (Author) / Doyle, S. (Author) / Kjellstrand, C. B. (Author) / Leduc, H. (Author) / Limon, M. (Author) / Luu, V. (Author) / Mauskopf, Philip (Author) / Miller, A. (Author) / Mroczkowski, T. (Author) / Tucker, C. (Author) / Zmuidzinas, J. (Author) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2016-02-25