Public defence in Engineering Physics, M.Sc. Giacomo Catto

Title of the doctoral thesis: Ultrasensitive bolometers as detectors of single quanta

Doctoral student: Giacomo Catto
Opponent: Prof. Ioan M. Pop, Institute for Quantum Materials and Technologies (IQMT), Germany
Custos: Prof. Mikko Möttönen,Aalto University School of Science, Department of Applied Physics

Thesis available for public display 10 days prior to the defence at: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/doc_public/eonly/riiputus/

Unlocking New Frontiers with Bolometric Sensing Signal detection stands at the forefront of scientific and technological progress. This thesis considers a possibly new mean of detection for electric fields in superconducting devices and tests a recently developed superconducting nanobolometer for new and promising applications. The first part of this work takes a close look at the recently formulated field-effect hypothesis on metallic superconductors. If validated, this discovery could reshape our understanding of superconducting materials and pave the way for innovative electric field detection methods, with important technological applications. Then the focus of this thesis moves onto the superconducting nanobolometer, the latest device developed at Quantum Computing and Devices (QCD) Laboratory and successfully utilized for photon detection. In this work the fabrication and utilization of device is presented and applied to different signal sources with the goal to reach qubit single shot readout and single electron detection. Finally, we confront challenges encountered in the fabrication process, laying the groundwork for future scalability, by presenting a new design to streamline the fabrication process. This work pushes the boundaries of application for the QCD superconducting nanobolometer, getting closer to realizing its full potential.

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Doctoral theses in the School of Science: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/52