Sub-picowatt resolution calorimetry with niobium nitride thin-film thermometer

Abstract

High-resolution calorimetry has many important applications such as probing nanoscale thermal transport and studying the thermodynamics of biological and chemical systems. In this work, we demonstrated a calorimeter with an unprecedentedly high resolution at room temperature using a high-performance resistive thermometry material, niobium nitride (NbNx). Based on a theoretical analysis, we first showed that the heat flux resolution of a resistive-thermometry based calorimeter depends on the parasitic thermal conductance of the device and the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the thermometer, when the noise is limited by the Johnson noise. Based on this analysis, we then developed a calorimeter using NbNxas the thermometry material because it possesses both high TCR.