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Ekstrom, H., Karasik, B., Weikle, R., Yngvesson, K. S., Gol’tsman, G., Kollberg, E., et al. (1993). Mixers using superconducting Nb films in the resistive state. In 23rd European Microwave Conf. (pp. 787–789).
Abstract: The mixing of 20 GHz radiation in a Nb superconducting film in the resistive state was studied. The experiment gave evidence of electron-heating to be the origin of the non-linear phenomenon. The requirements on the operation mode and on the film parameters in order to obtain small conversion losses or even gain are determined. Our measurements indicate a conversion loss of about 6-8 dB. The hot-electron bolometer is considered to be very promising for use in heterodyne receivers in a wide frequency range from microwaves to terahertz frequencies.
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Svechnikov, S., Verevkin, A., Voronov, B., Menschikov, E., Gershenzon, E., & Gol'tsman, G. (1998). Quasioptical phonon-cooled NbN hot electron bolometer mixers at 0.5-1.1 THz. In Proc. 9th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 45–51).
Abstract: The noise performance of a receiver incorporating spiral antenna coupled NbN phonon-cooled superconducting hot electron bolometric mixer is measured from 450 GHz to 1200 GHz. The mixer element is thin (thickness nm) NbN 1.5 pm wide and 0.2 i.um long film fabricated by lift-off e-beam lithography on high-resistive silicon substrate. The noise of the receiver temperature is 1000 K at 800-900 GHz, 1200 K at 950 GHz, and 1600 K at 1.08 THz. The required (absorbed) local-oscillator power is —20 nW.
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Kawamura, J., Blundell, R., Tong, C. - Y. E., Gol'tsman, G., Gershenzon, E., Voronov, B., et al. (1997). Phonon-cooled NbN HEB mixers for submillimeter wavelengths. In Proc. 8th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 23–28).
Abstract: The noise performance of receivers incorporating NbN phonon-cooled superconducting hot electron bolometric mixers is measured from 200 GHz to 900 GHz. The mixer elements are thin-film (thickness — 4 nm) NbN with —5 to 40 pm area fabricated on crystalline quartz sub- strates. The receiver noise temperature from 200 GHz to 900 GHz demonstrates no unexpected degradation with increasing frequency, being roughly TRx ,; 1-2 K The best receiver noise temperatures are 410 K (DSB) at 430 GHz, 483 K at 636 GHz, and 1150 K at 800 GHz.
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Semenov, A. D., Gousev, Y. P., Renk, K. F., Voronov, B. M., Gol'tsman, G. N., Gershenzon, E. M., et al. (1997). Noise characteristics of a NbN hot-electron mixer at 2.5 THz. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 7(2), 3572–3575.
Abstract: The noise temperature of a NbN phonon cooled hot-electron mixer has been measured at a frequency of 2.5 THz for various operating conditions. We obtained for optimal operation a double sideband mixer noise temperature of /spl ap/14000 K and a system conversion loss of /spl ap/23 dB at intermediate frequencies up to 1 GHz. The dependences of the mixer noise temperature on the bias voltage, local oscillator power, and intermediate frequency were consistent with the phenomenological description based on the effective temperature approximation.
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Gol’tsman, G. N., & Gershenzon, E. M. (1999). Phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixer: overview of recent results. Appl. Supercond., 6(10-12), 649–655.
Abstract: The paper presents an overview of recent results for NbN phonon-cooled hot electron bolometric (HEB) mixers. The noise temperature of the receivers based on both quasioptical and waveguide versions of HEB mixer has crossed the level of 1 K·GHz−1 at 430 GHz (410 K) and 600–650 GHz (480 K) and is close to this level at 820 GHz (1100 K) and 900 GHz (980 K). The gain bandwidth measured for quasioptical HEB mixer at 620 GHz reached 4 GHz and the noise temperature bandwidth was almost 8 GHz. Local oscillator power requirements are about 1 μW for mixers made by photolithography and are about 100 nW for mixers made by e-beam lithography. The studies in terahertz receivers based on HEB superconducting mixers now present a dynamic, rapidly developing field.
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Yagoubov, P., Kroug, M., Merkel, H., Kollberg, E., Schubert, J., Hubers, H. - W., et al. (1999). Heterodyne measurements of a NbN superconducting hot electron mixer at terahertz frequencies. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 9(2), 3757–3760.
Abstract: The performance of a NbN based phonon-cooled Hot Electron Bolometric (HEB) quasioptical mixer is investigated in the 0.65-3.12 THz frequency range. The device is made from a 3 nm thick NbN film on high resistivity Si and integrated with a planar spiral antenna on the same substrate. The in-plane dimensions of the bolometer strip are 0.2/spl times/2 /spl mu/m. The best results of the DSB noise temperature at 1.5 GHz IF frequency obtained with one device are: 1300 K at 650 GHz, 4700 K at 2.5 THz and 10000 K at 3.12 THz. The measurements were performed at 4.5 K ambient temperature. The amount of local oscillator (LO) power absorbed in the bolometer is about 100 nW. The mixer is linear to within 1 dB compression up to the signal level 10 dB below that of the LO. The intrinsic single sideband conversion gain measured at 650 GHz is -9 dB, the total conversion gain is -14 dB.
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Yagoubov, P., Kroug, M., Merkel, H., Kollberg, E., Schubert, J., Hubers, H. - W., et al. (1998). Performance of NbN phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixer at Terahertz frequencies. In Proc. 6-th Int. Conf. Terahertz Electron. (pp. 149–152).
Abstract: The performance of a NbN based phonon-cooled Hot Electron Bolometric (HEB) quasioptical mixer is investigated in the 0.65-3.12 THz frequency range. The device is made from a 3 nm thick NbN film on high resistivity Si and integrated with a planar spiral antenna on the same substrate. The in-plane dimensions of the bolometer strip are 0.2/spl times/2 /spl mu/m. The results of the DSB noire temperature are: 1300 K at 650 GHz, 4700 K at 2.5 TBz and 10000 K at 3.12 THz. The RF bandwidth of the receiver is at least 2.5 THz. The amount of LO power absorbed in the bolometer is about 100 nW. The mixer is linear to within 1 dB compression up to the signal level 10 dB below that of the LO. The intrinsic single sideband conversion gain is measured to be -9 dB, the total conversion gain -14 dB.
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Yagoubov, P., Kroug, M., Merkel, H., Kollberg, E., Hübers, H. - W., Schubert, J., et al. (1999). NbN hot electron bolometric mixers at frequencies between 0.7 and 3.1 THz. In Proc. 10th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 238–246).
Abstract: The performance of NbN based phonon-cooled Hot Electron Bolometric (HEB) quasioptical mixers is investigated in the 0.7-3.1 THz frequency range. The devices are made from a 3.5-4 nm thick NbN film on high resistivity Si and integrated with a planar spiral antenna on the same substrate. The length of the bolometer microbridge is 0.1- 0.2 gm, the width is 1-2 gm. The best results of the DSB receiver noise temperature measured at 1.5 GHz intermediate frequency are: 800 K at 0.7 THz, 1100 K at 1.6 THz, 2000 K at 2.5 THz and 4200 K at 3.1 THz. The measurements were performed with a far infrared laser as the local oscillator (LO) source. The estimated LO power required is less than 500 nW at the receiver input. First results on the spiral antenna polarization measurements are reported.
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Yagoubov, P., Kroug, M., Merkel, H., Kollberg, E., Schubert, J., & Hübers, H. - W. (1999). NbN hot electron bolometric mixers at frequencies between 0.7 and 3.1 THz. Supercond. Sci. Technol., 12(11), 989–991.
Abstract: The performance of NbN-based phonon-cooled hot electron bolometric (HEB) quasioptical mixers is investigated in the 0.7-3.1 THz frequency range. The devices are made from a 3.5-4 nm thick NbN film on high resistivity Si and integrated with a planar spiral antenna on the same substrate. The length of the bolometer microbridge is 0.1-0.2 µm; the width is 1-2 µm. The best results of the DSB receiver noise temperature measured at 1.5 GHz intermediate frequency are: 800 K at 0.7 THz, 1100 K at 1.6 THz, 2000 K at 2.5 THz and 4200 K at 3.1 THz. The measurements were performed with a far infrared laser as the local oscillator (LO) source. The estimated LO power requirement is less than 500 nW at the receiver input. First results on spiral antenna polarization measurements are reported.
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Okunev, 0., Dzardranov, A., Gol'tsman, G., & Gershenzon, E. (1995). Performances of hot—electron superconducting mixer for frequencies less than the gap energy: NbN mixer for 100 GHz operation. In Proc. 6th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 247–253).
Abstract: The possibilities to improve the parameters of the 100 GHz NbN HEB superconducting waveguide mixers have been studied. The device consists of a signal strip 1 gm wide by 2 Am long made of 40 A thick NbN film. The best operation point was found at 5 K, where the mixer bandwidth made up 1.5-2 GHz and the total loss diminished down to 8 dB. The critical current density has been increased up to " 40 6 A/cm 2 , the noise temperature of the receiver (DSB) has reduced down to 450 K and the local oscillator power has decreased down to -.4).1 mcV.
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Ozhegov, R. V., Gorshkov, K. N., Okunev, O. V., & Gol’tsman, G. N. (2010). Superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixer as element of thermal imager matrix. Tech. Phys. Lett., 36(11), 1006–1008.
Abstract: The possibility of using a matrix of sensitive elements on a 12-mm-diameter hyperhemispherical lens in a thermal imager operating in the terahertz range has been studied. Dimensions of a lens region acceptable for arrangement of the matrix, in which the receiver noise temperature varies within 16% of the mean value, are determined to be 3.3% of the lens diameter. Deviations of the main lobe of the directivity pattern are evaluated, which amount to ±1.25° relative to the direction toward the optimum position of a mixer. The fluctuation sensitivity of the receiver measured in experiment is 0.5 K at a frequency of 300 GHz.
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Gol’tsman, G. N. (1994). Terahertz technology in Russia. In 24th European Microwave Conf. (Vol. 1, pp. 113–121).
Abstract: The presentation consider the parameters and operating peculiarities of unique microwave generators of the terahertz range which have been created in Russia – the backward wave oscillators – as well as certain devices based on these generators, such as high resolution. spectrometers and time-resolving spectrometers with picosecond temporal resolution. Most resent BWO-based studies are illustrated by a project devoted to superconductive hot-electron. bolometers which are of great independent value for the terahertz technology as high-sensitive picosecond detectors and low noise broad-band mixers.
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De Luca, M., Gupta, H., Neufeld, D., Gerin, M., Teyssier, D., Drouin, B. J., et al. (2012). Herschel/HIFI discovery of HCL+ in the interstellar medium. Astrophys. J. Lett., 751(2), L37.
Abstract: The radical ion HCl+, a key intermediate in the chlorine chemistry of the interstellar gas, has been identified for the first time in the interstellar medium with the Herschel Space Observatory's Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared. The ground-state rotational transition of H35Cl+, 2Π3/2 J = 5/2-3/2, showing Λ-doubling and hyperfine structure, is detected in absorption toward the Galactic star-forming regions W31C (G10.6-0.4) and W49N. The complex interstellar absorption features are modeled by convolving in velocity space the opacity profiles of other molecular tracers toward the same sources with the fine and hyperfine structure of HCl+. This structure is derived from a combined analysis of optical data from the literature and new laboratory measurements of pure rotational transitions, reported in the accompanying Letter by Gupta et al. The models reproduce well the interstellar absorption, and the frequencies inferred from the astronomical observations are in exact agreement with those calculated using spectroscopic constants derived from the laboratory data. The detection of H37Cl+ toward W31C, with a column density consistent with the expected 35Cl/37Cl isotopic ratio, provides additional evidence for the identification. A comparison with the chemically related molecules HCl and H2Cl+ yields an abundance ratio of unity with both species (HCl+ : H2Cl+ : HCl ~ 1). These observations also yield the unexpected result that HCl+ accounts for 3%-5% of the gas-phase chlorine toward W49N and W31C, values several times larger than the maximum fraction (~1%) predicted by chemical models.
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Shurakov, A., Tong, E., Blundell, R., & Gol'tsman, G. (2012). Microwave stabilization of HEB mixer by a microchip controller. In IEEE MTT-S international microwave symposium digest (pp. 1–3).
Abstract: The stability of a Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer can be improved by the use of microwave injection. In this article we report a refinement of this approach. We introduce a microchip controller to facilitate the implementation of the stabilization scheme, and demonstrate that the feedback loop effectively suppresses drifts in the HEB bias current, leading to an improvement in the receiver stability. The measured Allan time of the mixer's IF output power is increased to > 10 s.
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Trifonov, A., Tong, C. - Y. E., Lobanov, Y., Kaurova, N., Blundell, R., & Goltsman, G. (2017). Photon absorption near the gap frequency in a hot electron bolometer. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 27(4), 1–4.
Abstract: The superconducting energy gap is a fundamental characteristic of a superconducting film, which, together with the applied pump power and the biasing setup, defines the instantaneous resistive state of the Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer at any given bias point on the I-V curve. In this paper we report on a series of experiments, in which we subjected the HEB to radiation over a wide frequency range along with parallel microwave injection. We have observed three distinct regimes of operation of the HEB, depending on whether the radiation is above the gap frequency, far below it or close to it. These regimes are driven by the different patterns of photon absorption. The experiments have allowed us to derive the approximate gap frequency of the device under test as about 585 GHz. Microwave injection was used to probe the HEB impedance. Spontaneous switching between the superconducting (low resistive) state and a quasi-normal (high resistive) state was observed. The switching pattern depends on the particular regime of HEB operation and can assume a random pattern at pump frequencies below the gap to a regular relaxation oscillation running at a few MHz when pumped above the gap.
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