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Abstract

Preliminary work to the production of a Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃Oy superconducting bolometer was done. An analysis of the noise performance of Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃Oy thin films was done with particular attention to the character and magnitude of 1/f noise in the material. Deposition of Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃Oy onto a silicon substrate was attempted through different methods of producing a barrier between the Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃Oy and the chemically corrupting silicon. The buffer layers would not endure the high temperature processing required to produce Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃Oy films without cracking or peeling. A mixed buffer layer scheme was used in order to minimize the thermal stresses between the different layers. In situ processing of Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃Oy was attempted in order to eliminate the high temperature annealing step of the Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃Oy. Finally, epitaxial buffer layers were grown in order to strengthen the buffer layer against the thermal stresses.