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Ren, Y., Zhang, D. X., Zhou, K. M., Miao, W., Zhang, W., Shi, S. C., et al. (2019). 10.6 μm heterodyne receiver based on a superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixer and a quantum cascade laser. AIP Advances, 9(7), 075307.
Abstract: We report on the development of a heterodyne receiver at mid-infrared wavelength for high-resolution spectroscopy applications. The receiver employs a superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer as a mixer and a room temperature distributed feedback quantum cascade laser operating at 10.6 μm (28.2 THz) as a local oscillator. The stabilization of the heterodyne receiver has been achieved using a feedback loop controlling the output power of the laser. Improved Allan variance times as well as a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 5000 K and a noise bandwidth of 2.8 GHz of the receiver system are demonstrated.
The work is supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant 2018YFA0404701, by the CAS program under Grant QYZDJ-SSW-SLH043 and GJJSTD20180003, by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant 11773083, by the “Hundred Talents Program” of the “Pioneer Initiative”, and in part by the CAS Key Lab for Radio Astronomy.
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Svechnikov, S. I., Finkel, M. I., Maslennikov, S. N., Vachtomin, Y. B., Smirnov, K. V., Seleznev, V. A., et al. (2006). Superconducting hot electron bolometer mixer for middle IR range. In Proc. 16th Int. Crimean Microwave and Telecommunication Technology (Vol. 2, pp. 686–687).
Abstract: The developed directly lens coupled hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer was based on 5 nm superconducting NbN deposited on GaAs substrate. The layout of the structure, including 30x20 mcm^2 active area coupled with a 50 Ohm coplanar line, was patterned by photolithography. The responsivity of the mixer was measured in a direct detection mode in the 25-64 THz frequency range. The noise performance of the mixer and the directivity of the receiver were investigated in a heterodyne mode. A 10.6 mum wavelength CW CO2 laser was utilized as a local oscillator.
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Tretyakov, I. V., Anfertyev, V. A., Revin, L. S., Kaurova, N. S., Voronov, B. M., Vaks, V. L., et al. (2018). Sensitivity and resolution of a heterodyne receiver based on the NbN HEB mixer with a quantum-cascade laser as a local oscillator. Radiophys. Quant. Electron., 60(12), 988–992.
Abstract: We present the results of experimental studies of the basic characteristics and operation features of a terahertz heterodyne detector based on the superconducting NbN HEB mixer and a quantum cascade laser as a local oscillator operating at a frequency of 2.02 THz. The measured noise temperature of such a mixer amounted to 1500 K. The spectral resolution of the detector is determined by the width of the local-oscillator spectral line whose measured value does not exceed 1 MHz. The quantum-cascade laser could be linearly tuned with respect to frequency with the coefficient 7.2 MHz/mA within the limits of the current oscillation bandwidth.
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Tretyakov, I., Kaurova, N., Voronov, B. M., & Goltsman, G. N. (2018). About effect of the temperature operating conditions on the noise temperature and noise bandwidth of the terahertz range NbN hot-electron bolometers. In Proc. 29th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (113).
Abstract: Results of an experimental study of the noise temperature (Tn) and noise bandwidth (NBW) of the superconductor NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixer as a function of its temperature (Tb) and NbN bridge length are presented. It was determined that the NBW of the mixer is significantly wider at temperatures close to the critical ones (Tc) than are values measured at 4.2 K. The NBW of the mixer measured at the heterodyne frequency of 2.5 THz at temperature Tb close to Tc was ~13 GHz, as compared with 6 GHz at Tb = 4.2 K. This experiment clearly demonstrates the limitation of the thermal flow from the NbN bridge at Tb ≪ Tc for mixers manufactured by the in situ technique. This limitation is close in its nature to the Andreev reflection on the superconductor/metal boundary. In this case, the noise temperature of the studied mixer increased from 1100 to 3800 K.
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Tretyakov, I., Kaurova, N., Raybchun, S., Goltsman, G. N., & Silaev, A. A. (2018). Technology for NbN HEB based multipixel matrix of THz range. In EPJ Web Conf. (Vol. 195, 05011).
Abstract: The influence of homogeneity disorder degree of the thin superconducting NbN film across of Si wafer on characteristics of the Hot Electron Bolometers (HEB) has been investigated. Our experiments have been carried out near the superconducting transition and far below it. The high homogeneity disorder degree of the NbN film has been achieved by preparing the Si substrate surface. The fabricated HEBs all have almost identical R (T) characteristics with a dispersion of Tc and the normal resistance R300 of not more than 0.15K and 2 Ω, respectively. The quality of the devises allows us to demonstrate clearly the influence of non-equilibrium processes in the S’SS’ system on the device performance. Our fabrication technology also allows creating multiplex heterodyne and direct detector matrices based the HEB devices.
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Seliverstov, S. V., Anfertyev, V. A., Tretyakov, I. V., Ozheredov, I. A., Solyankin, P. M., Revin, L. S., et al. (2017). Terahertz heterodyne receiver with an electron-heating mixer and a heterodyne based on the quantum-cascade laser. Radiophys. Quant. Electron., 60(7), 518–524.
Abstract: We study characteristics of the laboratory prototype of a terahertz heterodyne receiver with an electron-heating mixer and a heterodyne based on the quantum-cascade laser. The results obtained demonstrate the possibility to use this receiver as a basis for creation of a high-sensitivity terahertz spectrometer, which can be used in many basic and practical applications. A significant advantage of this receiver will be the possibility of placing the mixer and heterodyne in the same cryostat, which will reduce the device dimensions considerably. The obtained experimental results are analyzed, and methods of optimizing the parameters of the receiver are proposed.
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Trifonov, A., Tong, C. - Y. E., Grimes, P., Lobanov, Y., Kaurova, N., Blundell, R., et al. (2017). Development of a silicon membrane-based multipixel hot electron bolometer receiver. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 27(4), 1–5.
Abstract: We report on the development of a multipixel hot electron bolometer (HEB) receiver fabricated using silicon membrane technology. The receiver comprises a 2 × 2 array of four HEB mixers, fabricated on a single chip. The HEB mixer chip is based on a superconducting NbN thin-film deposited on top of the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The thicknesses of the device layer and handling layer of the SOI substrate are 20 and 300 μm, respectively. The thickness of the device layer is chosen such that it corresponds to a quarter-wave in silicon at 1.35 THz. The HEB mixer is integrated with a bow-tie antenna structure, in turn designed for coupling to a circular waveguide, fed by a monolithic drilled smooth-walled horn array.
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Anfertev, V., Vaks, V., Revin, L., Pentin, I., Tretyakov, I., Goltsman, G., et al. (2017). High resolution THz gas spectrometer based on semiconductor and superconductor devices. In EPJ Web Conf. (Vol. 132, 02001 (1 to 2)).
Abstract: The high resolution THz gas spectrometer consists of a synthesizer based on Gunn generator with a semiconductor superlattice frequency multiplier as a radiation source, and an NbN hot electron bolometer in a direct detection mode as a THz radiation receiver was presented. The possibility of application of a quantum cascade laser as a local oscillator for a heterodyne receiver which is based on an NbN hot electron bolometer mixer is shown. The ways for further developing of the THz spectroscopy were outlined.
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Krause, S., Mityashkin, V., Antipov, S., Gol’tsman, G., Meledin, D., Desmaris, V., et al. (2017). Reduction of phonon escape time for nbn hot electron bolometers by using gan buffer layers. IEEE Trans. Terahertz Sci. Technol., 7(1), 53–59.
Abstract: In this paper, we investigated the influence of the GaN buffer layer on the phonon escape time of phonon-cooled hot electron bolometers (HEBs) based on NbN material and compared our findings to conventionally employed Si substrate. The presented experimental setup and operation of the HEB close to the critical temperature of the NbN film allowed for the extraction of phonon escape time in a simplified manner. Two independent experiments were performed at GARD/Chalmers and MSPU on a similar experimental setup at frequencies of approximately 180 and 140 GHz, respectively, and have shown reproducible and consistent results. By fitting the normalized IF measurement data to the heat balance equations, the escape time as a fitting parameter has been deduced and amounts to 45 ps for the HEB based on Si substrate as in contrast to a significantly reduced escape time of 18 ps for the HEB utilizing the GaN buffer layer under the assumption that no additional electron diffusion has taken place. This study indicates a high phonon transmissivity of the NbN-to-GaN interface and a prospective increase of IF bandwidth for HEB made of NbN on GaN buffer layers, which is desirable for future THz HEB heterodyne receivers.
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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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