We characterize inductors fabricated from ultra-thin, approximately 100 nm wide strips of niobium (Nb) and niobium nitride (NbN). These nanowires have a large kinetic inductance in the superconducting state. The kinetic inductance scales linearly with the nanowire length, with a typical value of 1 nH µm(-1) for NbN and 44 pH µm(-1) for Nb at a temperature of 2.5 K. We measure the temperature an...

Kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) are a promising technology for low-noise, highly-multiplexible mmand submm-wave detection. KIDs have a number of advantages over other detector technologies, which make them an appealing option in the cosmic microwave background B-mode anisotropy search, including passive frequency domain multiplexing and relatively simple fabrication, but have suffered from ...

We introduce a microwave submillimeter-wave detector based on an integrated micromesh absorber and superconducting kinetic inductance thermometer on a through-wafer released sub-micron thick membrane. Equilibrium operation achieved by thermal isolation through the membrane geometry enables operation at elevated thermal bath temperatures of 5–10 K. The bolometer operates in a phonon-noise limite...

Individual electrons in graphene behave as massless quasiparticles. Unexpectedly, it is inferred from plasmonic investigations that electrons in graphene must exhibit a non-zero mass when collectively excited. The inertial acceleration of the electron collective mass is essential to explain the behaviour of plasmons in this material, and may be directly measured by accelerating it with a time-v...

Quantum limited amplifiers are sought after for a wide range of applications within quantum technologies and sensing. One promising candidate is the travelling wave parametric amplifier which exploits the non-linear kinetic inductance of a superconducting transmission line. This type of microwave amplifier promises to deliver a high gain, a quantum limited noise performance over several GHz ban...

Kinetic Inductance Detector (KID) is an exciting device that promises high sensitivity to photons from submillimeter waves gamma-rays with large format arrays. The KID consists of a superconductor thin film microwave resonator combined transmission line. When energy accumulates, Cooper pairs in the films are broken. Then quasiparticles produced. This change increases kinetic inductance resonant...

We demonstrate position and energy-resolved phonon-mediated detection of particle interactions in a silicon substrate instrumented with an array of microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs). The relative magnitude and delay of the signal received in each sensor allows the location of the interaction to be determined with sub-mm precision. Using this position information, variations in the ...

Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors, or MKIDs, have proven to be a powerful cryogenic detector technology due to their sensitivity and the ease with which they can be multiplexed into large arrays. A MKID is an energy sensor based on a photon-variable superconducting inductance in a lithographed microresonator, and is capable of functioning as a photon detector across the electromagnetic spe...