Towards X-ray Thermal Kinetic Inductance Detectors

Traditionally, kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) have been thought of as non-equilibrium detectors, which detect the excess of quasiparticles from the absorbed photon. In this case, recombination of quasiparticles is the bottleneck that limits the quasiparticle lifetime. However, the response of a KID to an excess of quasiparticles from photon absorption gives a nearly identical response to the increase in quasiparticle density due to a temperature change. Thus, KIDs can be used as thermometers to detect the temperature rise in an absorber due to a thermalized X-ray photon. In this work, we present a working prototype of an X-ray thermal KID (i.e., TKID) using a tungsten silicide resonator with superconducting tantalum absorber on a silicon nitride membrane. Finally, we outline improvements for future designs.