Baselmans, J. J. A., Hajenius, M., Gao, J. R., Klapwijk, T. M., de Korte, P. A. J., Voronov, B., et al. (2003). Noise performance of NbN hot electron bolometer mixers at 2.5 THz and its dependence on the contact resistance. In Proc. 14th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 11–19).
Abstract: NbN hot electron bolometer mixers (HEBM) are at this moment the best heterodyne receivers for frequencies above 1 Thz. However, the fabrication procedure of these devices is such that the quality of the interface between the NbN superconducting film and the contact structure is not under good control. The result is a low transparency interface between the bolometer itself and the contact/antenna structure. In this paper we report a detailed experimental study on a novel idea to increase the transparency of this interface. This leads to a record sensitivity and more reproducible performance. We compare identical bolometers, coupled with a spiral antenna, with different NbN bolometer-contact pad interfaces. We find that cleaning the NbN interface alone results in an increase in the noise temperature. However, cleaning the NbN interface and adding a thin additional superconductor prior to the gold contact deposition improves the noise temperature of the HEBm with more than a factor of 2. A device with a contact pad on top of an in-situ cleaned NbN film consisting of 10 nm of NbTiN and 40 nm of gold has a DSB noise temperature of 1050 K at 2.5 THz.
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Lindgren, M., Zorin, M. A., Trifonov, V., Danerud, M., Winkler, D., Karasik, B. S., et al. (1994). Optical mixing in a patterned YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin film. Appl. Phys. Lett., 65(26), 3398–3400.
Abstract: Mixing of 1.56 µm infrared radiation from two lasers in a high quality YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin film, patterned to parallel strips, was demonstrated. A mixer bandwidth of 18 GHz, limited by the measurement system, was obtained. A model based on nonequilibrium electron heating gives a good fit to the data and predicts an intrinsic mixer bandwidth in excess of 100 GHz, operating in the whole infrared spectrum. Reduction of bolometric effects and ways to decrease the conversion loss of the mixer is discussed. The minimum conversion loss is expected to be ~10 dB.
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Ekström, H., Karasik, B., Kollberg, E., & Yngvesson, K. S. (1994). Investigation of a superconducting hot electron mixer. In Proc. 5th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 169–188).
Abstract: Mixing at 20 GHz in niobium superconducting thin film strips in the resistive state is studied. Experiments give evidence that electron-heating is the main cause of the non linear phenomena. The requirements on the mode of operation and on the film parameters for small conversion loss and the possibility of conversion gain are discussed. Measurements indicate a minimum intrinsic conversion loss around 1 dB with a sharp drop for the lowest voltage bias-points, and a DSB mixer noise temperature between 100 and 450 K at 20 GHz. The device output noise temperature at the mixer operating point can be as low as 30-50 K. A simple theory is presented, which is based on the assumption that the small signal resistance is linearly dependent on power. This type of mixer is considered very promising for use in low-noise heterodyne receivers at THz frequencies.
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Vakhtomin, Y. B., Finkel, M. I., Antipov, S. V., Smirnov, K. V., Kaurova, N. S., Drakinskii, V. N., et al. (2003). The gain bandwidth of mixers based on the electron heating effect in an ultrathin NbN film on a Si substrate with a buffer MgO layer. J. of communications technol. & electronics, 48(6), 671–675.
Abstract: Measurements of the intermediate frequency band 900 GHz of mixers based on the electron heating effect (EHE) in 2-nm- and 3.5-nm-thick superconducting NbN films sputtered on MgO and Si substrates with buffer MgO layers are presented. A 2-nm-thick superconducting NbN film with a critical temperature of 9.2 K has been obtained for the first time using a buffer MgO layer.
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Phillips, T. G., & Jefferts, K. B. (1973). A low temperature bolometer heterodyne receiver for Millimeter wave astronomy. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 44(8), 1009–1014.
Abstract: Liquid helium cooled InSb hot electronbolometers are used in a balanced mixer configuration as detectors for an imagelessmicrowave receiver. The system is designed for mounting at the prime focus of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) 11 m antenna at Kitt Peak, Arizona, and is suitable for the study of rotational line spectra of interstellar gas molecules. Currently the operating frequency is in the 90–140 GHz band where the double sideband system noise temperature is 250 K.
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Kawamura, J., Blundell, R., Tong, C. -yu E., Gol’tsman, G., Gershenzon, E., Voronov, B., et al. (1997). Low noise NbN lattice-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometric mixers at submillimeter wavelengths. Appl. Phys. Lett., 70(12), 1619–1621.
Abstract: Lattice-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometric mixers are used in a submillimeter-wave waveguide heterodyne receiver. The mixer elements are niobium nitride film with 3.5 nm thickness and ∼10 μm2 area. The local oscillator power for optimal performance is estimated to be 0.5 μW, and the instantaneous bandwidth is 2.2 GHz. At an intermediate frequency centered at 1.4 GHz with 200 MHz bandwidth, the double sideband receiver noise temperature is 410 K at 430 GHz. The receiver has been used to detect molecular line emission in a laboratory gas cell.
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Jiang, L., Li, J., Zhang, W., Yao, Q. J., Lin, Z. L., Shi, S. C., et al. (2005). Characterization of NbN HEB mixers cooled by a close-cycled 4 Kelvin refrigerator. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 15(2), 511–513.
Abstract: It is quite beneficial to operate superconducting hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) mixers with a close-cycled 4 Kelvin refrigerator for real applications such as astronomy and atmospheric research. In this paper, a phononcooled NbN HEB mixer (quasioptical type) is thoroughly characterized under such a cooling circumstance. The effects of mechanical vibration, electrical interference, and temperature fluctuation of a two-stage Gifford-McMahon 4 Kelvin refrigerator upon the characteristics of the phononcooled NbN HEB mixer are investigated in particular. Detailed measurement results are presented.
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Zhang, W., Li, N., Jiang, L., Ren, Y., Yao, Q. - J., Lin, Z. - H., et al. (2008). Dependence of noise temperature of quasi-optical superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixers on bath temperature and optical-axis displacement. In C. Zhang, & X. - C. Zhang (Eds.), Proc. SPIE (Vol. 6840, 684007 (1 to 8)). Spie.
Abstract: It is known that the increase of bath temperature results in the decrease of critical current of superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers owing to the depression of superconductivity, thus leading to the degradation of the mixer’s sensitivity. Here we report our study on the effect of bath temperature on the heterodyne mixing performance of quasi-optical superconducting NbN HEB mixers incorporated with a two-arm log-spiral antenna. The correlation between the bath temperature, critical current, LO power requirement and noise temperature is investigated at 0.5 THz. Furthermore, the heterodyne mixing performance of quasi-optical superconducting NbN HEB mixers is examined while there is an optical-axis displacement between the center of the extended hemispherical silicon lens and the superconducting NbN HEB device, which is placed on the back of the lens. Detailed experimental results and analysis are presented.
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Jiang, L., Miao, W., Zhang, W., Li, N., Lin, Z. H., Yao, Q. J., et al. (2006). Characterization of quasi-optical NbN phonon-cooled superconducting HEB mixers. In Proc. 17th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 55–58).
Abstract: In this paper, we thoroughly investigate the performance of quasi-optical NbN phonon-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers, cryogenically cooled by a close-cycled 4-K refrigerator at 500 GI-1z and 850 GHz. The uncorrected lowest receiver noise Abstract---In temperatures measured are 800 K at 500 CHz without anti-reflection coating, and 1000 K @ 850 GHz with a 50 11M thick Mylar anti-reflection coating. The dependence of receiver noise temperature on the critical current and bath temperature of HEB mixer is also investigated here. Lifetime of quasi-optical superconducting NbN HEB mixers of different volumes, room temperature resistances, and critical temperatures are thoroughly studied. Increased room temperature resistance with time over the initial resistance changes between 1 and 1.2, and the reduced critical current with time over the initial value fluctuates slightly around 0.7 for most HEB mixers even of different volumes, room temperature resistances, and critical temperatures. The critical current degrades sharply vvhile room temperature resistance varies over 1.25.
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Zhang, W., Jiang, L., Lin, Z. H., Yao, Q. J., Li, J., Shi, S. C., et al. (2005). Development of a quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB mixer. In Proc. 16th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 209–213).
Abstract: In this paper, we report the performance of a quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB (hot electron bolometer) mixer measured at 500 and 850GHz. The quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB mixer is cryogenically cooled by a 4-K close-cycled refrigerator. Measured receiver noise temperature at 850 and 500GHz are 3000K and 2500K respectively with wire grid as beamsplitter, while the lowest receiver noise temperature is found to be approximately 1200K with Mylar film. The theoretical receiver noise temperature (taking into account the elliptical polarization of log-spiral antenna) is consistent with measured one. The receiver noise temperature and conversion gain with 15-μm Mylar film as the beamsplitter at 500GHz are thoroughly investigated for different LO pumping levels and dc biases. The stability of the mixer’s IF output power is also demonstrated.
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