The use of superconducting bolometers for detecting nanosecond heat pulses

Abstract

The authors discuss the use of superconducting edge bolometers for detecting heat pulses in the regime in which pulse lengths are shorter than the bolometer response time. An algorithm is described which enables deconvolution of the observed bolometer signal to give the incident phonon flux. Backscattering data taken on 2 mm sapphire crystals suggest that the method will also be successful in the study of much thinner samples, for example, the 0.5 mm thick wafers used in MBE technology.