Study of a thermodynamic microwave-heated noise-source for calibration of RFTES detector

A concept and experimental data are presented for testing a miniature thermodynamic noise-source based on heating a niobium film bridge in a superconducting resonator at a frequency of about 1.4 GHz. The thermodynamic noise signal was emitted by a double-slot superconducting integrated lens antenna in the range 550–750 GHz in the form of a collimated beam with a length of about 15 mm onto the aperture of the RFTES detector; both devices are installed on the same stage of a dilution cryostat at a physical temperature of the emitting chip and detector of about 60 mK. For the first time, the optical effect of a microminiature thermodynamic noise-source in the terahertz range on an ultra-low temperature bolometer has been observed. The thermal load of the experimental noise-source on the dilution cryostat was analyzed.