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Author Baselmans, J. J. A.; Hajenius, M.; Gao, J.; de Korte, P.; Klapwijk, T. M.; Voronov, B.; Gol’tsman, G.
Title Doubling of sensitivity and bandwidth in phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixers Type Conference Article
Year 2004 Publication Proc. SPIE Abbreviated Journal Proc. SPIE
Volume 5498 Issue Pages 168-176
Keywords Hot electron bolometers, bandwidth, noise temperature, experimental
Abstract (up) NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers are at this moment the best heterodyne detectors 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. This results in a contact resistance between the NbN bolometer and the contact pad. We compare identical bolometers, with different NbN – contact pad interfaces, coupled with a spiral antenna. We find that cleaning the NbN interface and adding a thin additional superconductor prior to the gold contact deposition improves the noise temperature and the bandwidth of the HEB mixers with more than a factor of 2. We obtain a DSB noise temperature of 950 K at 2.5 THz and a Gain bandwidth of 5-6 GHz. For use in real receiver systems we design small volume (0.15x1 micron) HEB mixers with a twin slot antenna. We find that these mixers combine good sensitivity (900 K at 1.6 THz) with low LO power requirement, which is 160 – 240 nW at the Si lens of the mixer. This value is larger than expected from the isothermal technique and the known losses in the lens by a factor of 3-3.5.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher SPIE Place of Publication Editor Zmuidzinas, J.; Holland, W.S.; Withington, S.
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors for Astronomy II
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 1744
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Author Baselmans, J. J. A.; Hajenius, M.; Gao, J. R.; Klapwijk, T. M.; de Korte, P. A. J.; Voronov, B.; Gol'tsman, G.
Title Noise performance of NbN hot electron bolometer mixers at 2.5 THz and its dependence on the contact resistance Type Conference Article
Year 2003 Publication Proc. 14th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. Abbreviated Journal Proc. 14th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.
Volume Issue Pages 11-19
Keywords NbN HEB mixers
Abstract (up) 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.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 1497
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Author Gerecht, E.; Musante, C. F.; Jian, H.; Yngvesson, K. S.; Dickinson, J.; Waldman, J.; Yagoubov, P. A.; Gol'tsman, G. N.; Voronov, B. M.; Gershenzon, E. M.
Title New results for NbN phonon-cooled hot electron bolometric mixers above 1 THz Type Journal Article
Year 1999 Publication IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. Abbreviated Journal IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.
Volume 9 Issue 2 Pages 4217-4220
Keywords NbN HEB mixers
Abstract (up) NbN Hot Electron Bolometric (HEB) mixers have produced promising results in terms of DSB receiver noise temperature (2800 K at 1.56 THz). The LO source for these mixers is a gas laser pumped by a CO/sub 2/ laser and the device is quasi-optically coupled through an extended hemispherical lens and a self-complementary log-periodic toothed antenna. NbN HEBs do not require submicron dimensions, can be operated comfortably at 4.2 K or higher, and require LO power of about 100-500 nW. IF noise bandwidths of 5 GHz or greater have been demonstrated. The DC bias point is also not affected by thermal radiation at 300 K. Receiver noise temperatures below 1 THz are typically 450-600 K and are expected to gradually approach these levels above 1 THz as well. NbN HEB mixers thus are rapidly approaching the type of performance required of a rugged practical receiver for astronomy and remote sensing in the THz region.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1051-8223 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 1568
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Author Cherednichenko, S.; Khosropanah, P.; Adam, A.; Merkel, H. F.; Kollberg, E. L.; Loudkov, D.; Gol'tsman, G. N.; Voronov, B. M.; Richter, H.; Huebers, H.-W.
Title 1.4- to 1.7-THz NbN hot-electron bolometer mixer for the Herschel space observatory Type Conference Article
Year 2003 Publication Proc. SPIE Abbreviated Journal Proc. SPIE
Volume 4855 Issue Pages 361-370
Keywords NbN HEB mixers
Abstract (up) NbN hot- electron bolometer mixers have reached the level of 10hv/k in terms of the input noise temperature with the noise bandwidth of 4-6 GHz from subMM band up to 2.5 THz. In this paper we discuss the major characteristics of this kind of receiver, i.e. the gain and the noise bandwidth, the noise temperature in a wide RF band, bias regimes and optimisation of RF coupling to the quasioptical mixer. We present the status of the development of the mixer for Band 6 Low for Herschel Telescope.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher SPIE Place of Publication Editor Phillips, T.G.; Zmuidzinas, J.
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors for Astronomy
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 1521
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Author Baselmans, J.; Kooi, J.; Baryshev, A.; Yang, Z. Q.; Hajenius, M.; Gao, J. R.; Klapwijk, T. M.; Voronov, B.; Gol’tsman, G.
Title Full characterization of small volume NbN HEB mixers for space applications Type Conference Article
Year 2005 Publication Proc. 16th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. Abbreviated Journal Proc. 16th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.
Volume Issue Pages 457-462
Keywords NbN HEB mixers
Abstract (up) NbN phonon cooled HEB’s are one of the most promising bolometer mixer technologies for (near) future (space) applications. Their performance is usually quantified by mea- suring the receiver noise temperature at a given IF frequency, usually around 1 – 2 GHz. However, for any real applications it is vital that one fully knows all the relevant properties of the mixer, including LO power, stability, direct detection, gain bandwidth and noise bandwidth, not only the noise temperature at low IF frequencies. To this aim we have measured all these parameters at the optimal operating point of one single, small volume quasioptical NbN HEB mixer. We find a minimum noise temperature of 900 K at 1.46 THz. We observe a direct detection effect indicated by a change in bias current when changing from a 300 K hot load to a 77 K cold load. Due to this effect we overestimate the noise temperature by about 22% using a 300 K hot load and a 77 K cold load. The LO power needed to reach the optimal operating point is 80 nW at the receiver lens front, 59 nW inside the NbN bridge. However, using the isothermal technique we find a power absorbed in the NbN bridge of 25 nW, a difference of about a factor 2. We obtain a gain bandwidth of 2.3 GHz and a noise bandwidth of 4 GHz. The system Allan time is about 1 sec. in a 50 MHz spectral bandwidth and a deviation from white noise integration (governed by the radiometer equation) occurs at 0.2 sec., which implies a maximum integration time of a few seconds in a 1 MHz bandwidth spectrometer.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Göteborg, Sweden Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 363
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