Current-Biased Kinetic Inductance Detector Using \hbox Nanowires for Detecting Neutrons

We propose a current-biased kinetic inductance detector (CB-KID). This detector senses a change in kinetic inductance under a dc bias current, in contrast to a current-biased transition edge detector, reported previously, which probes the transient change in the bias current at the transition edge. Our CB-KID consists of a 200-nm-thick thin-film meander line with 3- wire. It is operated at 4 K. A scanning laser spot can be achieved by an XYZ piezo-driven stage and an optical fiber with an aspheric focused lens. We succeeded in observing a signal image in the contour at 4 K. The magnitude of the signal should be proportional to the number of quasi-particles excited by the laser. Because our CB-KID has a typical signal of 3-ns pulse width and can operate at 4 K, it will be possible to assemble a large-scale array of neutron detectors with single flux quantum readout circuits.