Characterization of a Far-Infrared Kinetic Inductance Detector Prototype for PRIMA

Abstract

The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) is under study as a potential far-IR space mission, featuring actively cooled optics, and both imaging and spectroscopic instrumentation. To fully take advantage of the low background afforded by a cold telescope, spectroscopy with PRIMA requires detectors with a noise equivalent power (NEP) better than $1 \times 10^{-19}$ W Hz$^{-1/2}$. To meet this goal, we are developing large format arrays of kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) to work across the 25–250 $\mu$m range. Here, we present the design and characterization of a single pixel prototype detector optimized for 210 $\mu$m. The KID consists of a lens-coupled aluminum inductor-absorber connected to a niobium interdigitated capacitor to form a 2 GHz resonator. We have fabricated a small array with 28 KIDs, and we measure the performance of one of these detectors with an optical loading in the 0.01–300 aW range. At low loading, the detector achieves an NEP of $9\times 10^{-20}$ W Hz$^{-1/2}$ at a 10 Hz readout frequency. An extrapolation of these measurements suggests this detector may remain photon noise limited at up to 20 fW of loading, offering a high dynamic range for PRIMA observations of bright astronomical sources.