Epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7−δ air-bridge microbolometers on silicon substrates

Silicon micromachining technology is applied to fabricate free-standing YBCO structures for low-thermal-mass bolometer devices. The bolometric response of the devices is studied with chopped IR illumination at a wavelength of 1.3 μm. The micromachining process leads to an enhancement of sensitivity by more than one order of magnitude. The optical responsivity of the air-bridge bolometers measured at the midpoint of the resistive transition is 1.29 kV/W and the time constant is 81 μs. The optical noise equivalent power is 1.1×10−11 W/Hz1/2.