NON-JOSEPHSON OSCILLATION AS A NEW MECHANISM FOR DEVELOPING BOLOMETRIC DETECTORS

It has been found that superconducting thin films in the resistive cur rent state can initiate, in addition to Josephson oscillations, non-Jo sephson oscillation (NJO) of much lower frequencies (10(6)-10(8) Hz). Characteristically, the NJO frequency f0 is extremely sensitive to ext ernal parameters such as d.c. current, temperature and infrared (IR) i rradiation. This high sensitivity of the oscillation frequency to exte rnal influences holds much promise for the development of a new class of detectors. The present work was performed using the temperature sen sitivity of the effect, which may be as high as 10(11) Hz K-1, and the n considering the possibility of developing an IR bolometer.