Inductive single-electron transistor -: art. no. 066805

We demonstrate a sensitive method of charge detection based on radio-frequency readout of the Josephson inductance of a superconducting single-electron transistor. Charge sensitivity 1.4x10(-4) e/rootHz, limited by a preamplifier, is achieved in an operation mode which takes advantage of the nonlinearity of the Josephson potential. Owing to reactive readout, our setup has more than 2 orders of magnitude lower dissipation than the existing method of radio-frequency electrometry. With an optimized sample, we expect uncoupled energy sensitivity below h in the same experimental scheme.