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Semenov, A. D., Nebosis, R. S., Gousev, Y. P., Heusinger, M. A., & Renk, K. F. (1995). Analysis of the nonequilibrium photoresponse of superconducting films to pulsed radiation by use of a two-temperature model. Phys. Rev. B, 52(1), 581–590.
Abstract: Photoresponse of a superconducting film in the resistive state to pulsed radiation has been studied in the framework of a model assuming that two different effective temperatures can be assigned to the quasiparticle and phonon nonequilibrium distributions. The coupled electron-phonon-substrate system is described by a system of time-dependent energy-balance differential equations for effective temperatures. An analytical solution of the system is given and calculated voltage transients are compared with experimental photoresponse signals taking into account the radiation pulse shape and the time resolution of the readout electronics. It is supposed that a resistive state (vortices, fluxons, network of intergrain junctions, hot spots, phase slip centers) provides an ultrafast connection between electron temperature changes and changes of the film resistance and thus plays a minor role in the temporal evolution of the response. In accordance with experimental observations a two-component response was revealed from simulations. The slower component corresponds to a bolometric mechanism while the fast component is connected with the relaxation of the electron temperature. Calculated photoresponse transients are presented for different ratios of the electron and phonon specific heat, radiation pulse durations and fluences, and frequency band passes of registration electronics. From the amplitude of the bolometric component we determine the radiation energy absorbed in a film. This enables us to reveal an intrinsic electron-phonon scattering time even if it is much shorter than the time resolution of readout electronics. We analyze experimental voltage transients for NbN, YBa2Cu3O7, and TlBa2Ca2Cu3O9 superconducting films and find the electron-phonon interaction times at the transition temperatures of 17, 2.5, and 1.8 ps, respectively. The values are in reasonable agreement with data of other experiments.
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Semenov, A. D., Sergeev, A. V., Kouminov, P., Goghidze, I. G., Heusinger, M. A., Nebosis, R. S., et al. (1993). Transparency of YBCO film/substrate interfaces for thermal phonons determined by photoresponse measurements. In H. C. Freyhardt (Ed.), Proc. 1st European Conf. on Appl. Supercond. (Vol. 2, pp. 1443–1446).
Abstract: Direct measurements of the thermal boundary resistance were performed by means of the stationary method. In this approach the temperature of an electrically heated film is controlled by its dc resistance while an additional film on the same substrate is used as a thermometer monitoring substrate temperature. The temperature field in the substrate is then calculated to deduce the Kapitza temperature step at the interface between the heated strip and the substrate. The main statement of all afore-said papers is that experimental values of the thermal boundary resistance are too large to be explained by the acoustic mismatch model. In this paper we investigate transparency of YBaCuO film/substrate interfaces for thermal phonons by means of photoresponse measurements. We show that our data are in reasonable agreement with the acoustic mismatch theory.
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Semenov, A. V., Devyatov, I. A., Korneev, A. A., Smirnov, K. V., Goltsman, G. N., & Melnikov, A. P. (2012). Derivation of expression for thermodynamic potential of “dirty” superconductor. Rus. J. Radio Electron., (4).
Abstract: We derive a formula for thermodynamic potential of dirty superconductor which express it via isotropic quasiclassical Green functions of Usadel theory. Our result allows unify description of dynamic processes and fluctuations in superconducting nano-electronic devices.
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Semenov, A. V., Devyatov, I. A., Ryabchun, S. A., Maslennikov, S. N., Maslennikova, A. S., Larionov, P. A., et al. (2011). Absorption of terahertz electromagnetic radiation in dirty superconducting film at arbitrary type of the spectral functions. Rus. J. Radio Electron., (10).
Abstract: A problem of absorption of high-frequency electromagnetic field in dirty superconductor is treated within Keldysh technic. Expression for the source term in the kinetic equation for quasiparticle distribution function is derived. The result is significant for deriving a consistent microscopic theory of superconducting detectors for terahertz frequency range, perspective detectors on kinetic inductance of current-biased superconducting strip and on Josephson inductance of tunnel.
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Semenov, A., Engel, A., Il'in, K., Gol'tsman, G., Siegel, M., & Hübers, H. - W. (2003). Ultimate performance of a superconducting quantum detector. Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys., 21(3), 171–178.
Abstract: We analyze the ultimate performance of a superconducting quantum detector in order to meet requirements for applications in near-infrared astronomy and X-ray spectroscopy. The detector exploits a combined detection mechanism, in which avalanche quasiparticle multiplication and the supercurrent jointly produce a voltage response to a single absorbed photon via successive formation of a photon-induced and a current-induced normal hotspot in a narrow superconducting strip. The response time of the detector should increase with the photon energy providing energy resolution. Depending on the superconducting material and operation conditions, the cut-off wavelength for the single-photon detection regime varies from infrared waves to visible light. We simulated the performance of the background-limited infrared direct detector and X-ray photon counter utilizing the above mechanism. Low dark count rate and intrinsic low-frequency cut-off allow for realizing a background limited noise equivalent power of 10−20 W Hz−1/2 for a far-infrared direct detector exposed to 4-K background radiation. At low temperatures, the intrinsic response time of the counter is rather determined by diffusion of nonequilibrium electrons than by the rate of energy transfer to phonons. Therefore, thermal fluctuations do not hamper energy resolution of the X-ray photon counter that should be better than 10−3 for 6-keV photons. Comparison of new data obtained with a Nb based detector and previously reported results on NbN quantum detectors support our estimates of ultimate detector performance.
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Semenov, A., Goltsman, G., & Korneev, A. (2001). Quantum detection by current carrying superconducting film. Phys. C: Supercond., 351(4), 349–356.
Abstract: We describe a novel quantum detection mechanism in the superconducting film carrying supercurrent. The mechanism incorporates growing normal domain and breaking of superconductivity by the bias current. A single photon absorbed in the film creates transient normal spot that causes redistribution of the current and, consequently, increase of the current density in superconducting areas. When the current density exceeds the critical value, the film switches into resistive state and generates the voltage pulse. Analysis shows that a submicron-wide film of conventional low temperature superconductor operated in liquid helium may detect single far-infrared photon. The amplitude and duration of the voltage pulse are in the millivolt and picosecond range, respectively. The quantitative model is presented that allows simulation of the detector utilizing this detection mechanism.
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Semenov, A., Haas, P., Ilin, K., Hubers, H., Siegel, M., Engel, A., et al. (2007). Energy resolution and sensitivity of a superconducting quantum detector. Phys. C: Supercond., 460-462, 1491–1492.
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Semenov, A., Hübers, H. - W., Engel, A., & Gol’tsman, G. (2002). Superconducting quantum detector for far infrared astronomy. In J. Wolf, J. Farhoomand, & C. R. McCreight (Eds.), Far-IR, Sub-mm & MM Detector Technology Workshop (pp. 3–49). NASA CP. NASA.
Abstract: We present the concept of the superconducting quantum detector for astronomy. Response to a single absorbed photon appears due to successive formation of a normal spot and phase-slip-centres in a narrow strip carrying sub-critical supercurrent. The detector simultaneously has a moderate energy resolution and a variable cut-off wavelength depending on both the material used and operation conditions. We simulated performance of the background-limited direct detector having the 100-micrometer cut-off wavelength. Low dark count rate will allow to realise 10-21 W Hz-1/2 noise equivalent power at 4 K background radiation. The detection mechanism provides a moderate 1/20 energy resolution at 50-micrometer wavelength.
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Semenov, A., Richter, H., Hübers, H. - W., Petrenko, D., Tretyakov, I., Ryabchun, S., et al. (2014). Optimization of the intermediate frequency bandwidth in the THz HEB mixers. In Proc. 25th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (54).
Abstract: We report on the studies of the intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth of quasi-optically coupled NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers which are aimed at the optimization of the mixer performance at terahertz frequencies. Extension of the IF bandwidth due to the contribution of electron diffusion to the heat removal from NbN microbolometers has been already demonstrated for NbN HEBs at subterahertz frequencies. However, reducing the size of the microbolometer causes degradation of the noise temperature. Using in-situ multilayer manufacturing process we succeeded to improve the transparency of the contacts for electrons which go away from microbolometer to the metallic antenna. The improved transparency and hence coupling efficiency counterbalances the noise temperature degradation. HEB mixers were tested in a laboratory heterodyne receiver with a narrow-band cold filter which allowed us to eliminate direct detection. We used a local oscillator with a quantum cascade laser (QCL) at a frequency of 4.745 THz [1] which was developed for the H-Channel of the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz frequencies (GREAT). Both the noise and gain bandwidth were measured in the IF range from 0.5 to 8 GHz using the hot-cold technique and preliminary calibrated IF analyzer with a tunable microwave filter. For optimized HEB geometry we found the noise bandwidth as large as 7 GHz. We compare our results with the conventional and the hot-spot mixer models and show that further extension of the IF bandwidth should be possible via improving the sharpness of the superconducting transition. The cross characterization of the HEB mixer was performed in the test bed of GREAT at the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie with the same QCL LO and delivered results which were consistent with the laboratory studies.
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Semenov, A., Richter, H., Hübers, H. - W., Smirnov, K., Voronov, B., & Gol'tsman, G. (2003). Development of terahertz superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixers. In Proc. 6th European Conf. Appl. Supercond. (Vol. 181, pp. 2960–2965).
Abstract: We present recent results of the development of phonon cooled hot-electron bolometric (HEB) mixers for airborne and balloon borne terahertz heterodyne receivers. Three iomportant issues have been addresses: the quality of NbN films the HEB mixers were made from, the spectral properties of the HEB mixers and the local oscillator power required for optical operation. Studies with an atomic force microscope indicate, that the performance of the HEB mixer might have been effected by the microstructure of the NbN film. Antenna gain and noise temperature were investigated at terahertz frequencies for a HEB embedded in either log-spiral or twin-slot feed antenna. Comparison suggests that at frequencies above 3 THz the spiral feed provides better overall performance. At 1.6 THz, a power of 2.5 µW was required from the local oscillator for optimal operation of the HEB mixer.
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Semenov, A., Richter, H., Smirnov, A., Günther, B., Hübers, H. - W., Il’in, K., et al. (2007). Development of HEB mixers for GREAT and for security screening. In Proc. 18th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (184).
Abstract: We report the study on the quasioptical coupling efficiency and the gain bandwidth of NbN hot-electron bolometer mixers developed for the 4.7 THz channel of the German receiver for Astronomy at THz-frequencies (GREAT) and for security screening at subterahertz frequencies. Radiation coupling efficiency and directive properties of integrated lens antennas with log-spiral, log-periodic and double-slot planar feeds coupled to a hot-electron bolometer were experimentally studied at frequencies from 1 THz to 6 THz and compared with simulations based on the method of moments and the physical-optics ray tracing. For all studied antennas the modeled spectral dependence of the coupling efficiency fits to the experimental data obtained with both Fourier transform spectroscopy and noise temperature measurements only if the complex impedance of the bolometer is explicitly taken into account. Our experimental data did not indicate any noticeable contribution of the quantum noise to the system noise temperature. The experimentally observed deviation of the beam pattern from the model prediction increases with frequency and is most likely due to a non- ideality of the presently used lenses. Study of the intermediate frequency mixer gain at local oscillator (LO) frequencies between 2.5 THz and 0.3 THz showed an increase of the gain bandwidth at low LO frequencies that was understood as the contribution of the direct interaction of magnetic vortices with the radiation field. We have found that the non- homogeneous hot-spot model more adequately describes variation of the intermediate frequency bandwidth with the applied local oscillator power than any of uniform mixer models. The state-of-the-day performance of the GREAT 4.7-THz channel and the 0.8-THz security scanner will be presented.
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Sergeev, A. V., Aksaev, E. E., Gogidze, I. G., Gol’tsman, G. N., Semenov, A. D., & Gershenzon, E. M. (1993). Thermal boundary resistance at YBaCuO film-substrate interface. In M. Meissner, & R. O. Pohl (Eds.), Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter VII. Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences (Vol. 112, pp. 405–406).
Abstract: The nanosecond voltage response of YBaCuo films on Al2O3, MgO and ZrO2 substrates to electromagnetic radiation of millimeter and visible ranges has been investigated. The analysis of experimental conditions for Al2O3 and MgO substrates shows that the resistance change is monitored by the Kapitza boundary shift of temperature during the temporal interval ~ 100 ns limited by the time of phonon return from a substrate into a film. The observed exponential voltage decay is described by the phonon escape time which is proportional to the film thickness and is weakly temperature dependent.
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Sergeev, A. V., Semenov, A. D., Kouminov, P., Trifonov, V., Goghidze, I. G., Karasik, B. S., et al. (1994). Transparency of a YBa2Cu3O7-film/substrate interface for thermal phonons measured by means of voltage response to radiation. Phys. Rev. B Condens. Matter., 49(13), 9091–9096.
Abstract: The transparency of a film/substrate interface for thermal phonons was investigated for YBa2Cu3O7 thin films deposited on MgO, Al2O3, LaAlO3, NdGaO3, and ZrO2 substrates. Both voltage response to pulsed-visible and to continuously modulated far-infrared radiation show two regimes of heat escape from the film to the substrate. That one dominated by the thermal boundary resistance at the film/substrate interface provides an initial exponential decay of the response. The other one prevailing at longer times or smaller modulation frequencies causes much slower decay and is governed by phonon diffusion in the substrate. The transparency of the boundary for phonons incident from the film on the substrate and also from the substrate on the film was determined separately from the characteristic time of the exponential decay and from the time at which one regime was changed to the other. Taking into account the specific heat of optical phonons and the temperature dependence of the group velocity of acoustic phonons, we show that the body of experimental data agrees with acoustic mismatch theory rather than with the model that assumes strong diffusive scattering of phonons at the interface.
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Sergeev, A., Semenov, A., Trifonov, V., Karasik, B., Gol'tsman, G., & Gershenzon, E. (1994). Heat transfer in YBaCuO thin film/sapphire substrate system. J. Supercond., 7(2), 341–344.
Abstract: The thermal boundary resistance at the YBaCuO thin film/Al2O3 substrate interface was investigated. The transparency for thermal phonons incident on the interface as well as for phonons moving from the substrate was determined. We have measured a transient voltage response of current-biased films to continuously modulated radiation. The observed knee in the modulation frequency dependence of the response reflects the crossover from the diffusion regime to the contact resistance regime of the heat transfer across the interface. The values of transparency were independently deduced both from the phonon escape time and from the time of phonon return to the film which were identified with peculiarities in the frequency dependence. The results are much more consistent with the acoustic mismatch theory than the diffuse mismatch model.
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Shcherbatenko, M., Lobanov, Y., Semenov, A., Kovalyuk, V., Korneev, A., Ozhegov, R., et al. (2017). Coherent detection of weak signals with superconducting nanowire single photon detector at the telecommunication wavelength. In I. Prochazka, R. Sobolewski, & R. B. James (Eds.), Proc. SPIE (Vol. 10229, 0G (1 to 12)). Spie.
Abstract: Achievement of the ultimate sensitivity along with a high spectral resolution is one of the frequently addressed problems, as the complication of the applied and fundamental scientific tasks being explored is growing up gradually. In our work, we have investigated performance of a superconducting nanowire photon-counting detector operating in the coherent mode for detection of weak signals at the telecommunication wavelength. Quantum-noise limited sensitivity of the detector was ensured by the nature of the photon-counting detection and restricted by the quantum efficiency of the detector only. Spectral resolution given by the heterodyne technique and was defined by the linewidth and stability of the Local Oscillator (LO). Response bandwidth was found to coincide with the detector’s pulse width, which, in turn, could be controlled by the nanowire length. In addition, the system noise bandwidth was shown to be governed by the electronics/lab equipment, and the detector noise bandwidth is predicted to depend on its jitter. As have been demonstrated, a very small amount of the LO power (of the order of a few picowatts down to hundreds of femtowatts) was required for sufficient detection of the test signal, and eventual optimization could lead to further reduction of the LO power required, which would perfectly suit for the foreseen development of receiver matrices and the need for detection of ultra-low signals at a level of less-than-one-photon per second.
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