Ultrasensitive Nanobolometers - Superconducting Single-Photon Detectors and Individual SW Carbon Nanotubes

Recent experiments at Yale have explored the high frequency response of superconducing nanobolometers* that are candidates for detecting single Terahertz (4 meV) photons.  We can test these optically with a room-temperature Fourier transform spectrometer.  We have developed a new testing method with a new 'quanta', the faux photon, = 'fauxton', that allows the much more difficult device testing at the single photon level, for such low photon energies.   Using the Fourier transform spectrometer, we have also studied the electrodynamic response of single-walled carbon nanotubes at THz frequencies, to measure the plasmon dynamics and Luttinger physics.

* J. Wei et al., Nature Nanotech. 3, 496 (2008).