Graphene-Based Josephson Junction Microwave Bolometer

Abstract

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 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 8–13 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 14 and reaching the fundamental limit imposed by intrinsic thermal fluctuation at 0.19 K.