We suggest and demonstrate in experiment that two normal metal /insulator/ superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions combined in series to form a symmetric SINIS structure can operate as an efficient Peltier refrigerator. Specifically, it is shown that the SINIS structure with normal-state junction resistances 1.0 and 1.1 kΩ is capable of reaching a temperature of about 100 mK starting from 300 mK. We estimate the corresponding cooling power to be 1.5 pW per total junction area of 0.8 µm 2 at T = 300 mK.

We have performed calorimetric measurements on 200 nm thin silicon nitride membranes at temperatures from 0.07 to 1 K. Besides full windows, membranes cut into a thermally isolating suspended bridge geometry were investigated. Based on dc and ac measurements employing normal-metal/insulator/superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions both as a thermometer and a heater, we report on heat transport and thermal relaxation in silicon nitride films. The bridge structure improves thermal isolation and, consequently, energy sensitivity by two orders of magnitude over those of the full membrane with the same size, and makes such a structure very attractive for bolometric and microrefrigeration applications.

We describe the construction and performance of a passive, real-time terahertz camera based on a modular, 64-element linear array of cryogenic hotspot microbolometers. A reflective conical scanner sweeps out a 2 m x 4 m (vertical x horizontal) field of view (FOV) at a standoff range of 8 m. The focal plane array is cooled to 4 K in a closed cycle refrigerator, and the signals are detected on free-standing bridges of superconducting Nb or NbN at the feeds of broadband planar spiral antennas. The NETD of the focal-plane array, referred to the target plane and to a frame rate of 5 s(-1), is 1.25 K near the center of the array and 2 K overall.

We analyze heat conduction by phonons in ultrathin membranes by constructing a new theoretical framework which implies a crossover from a bulk three-dimensional phonon distribution into a quasitwo-dimensional distribution when the temperature is lowered. We calculate the corresponding changes in the relevant thermodynamic quantities. At the end we make a comparison to experimental data.[S0031-9007(98)07273-1]