Thermal Detection of Dark Matter
Bolometers operating at low temperature are discussed as detectors of heavy particles which have been recently considered as constituents of Cosmic Dark Matter. The study of the heat leak in a cascade refrigerator operating underground is suggested for the indirect detection of Weak Interacting Massive Particles.
We have investigated the effects of carrier diffusion on the impulse response of a resonant-cavity enhanced photodetector using our analytic expression for a short-circuit current. Our theoretical results indicate that diffusion introduces a significant tail in the temporal response of photodetectors. We show that the influence of diffusion becomes significant as the absorption width decreases. A discrepancy in bandwidth as high as 35% between our results and previous theoretical predictions is observed.