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Coumou, P. C. J. J., Driessen, E. F. C., Bueno, J., Chapelier, C., & Klapwijk, T. M. (2013). Electrodynamic response and local tunneling spectroscopy of strongly disordered superconducting TiN films. Phys. Rev. B, 88(18), 180505 (1 to 5).
Abstract: We have studied the electrodynamic response of strongly disordered superconducting TiN films using microwave resonators, where the disordered superconductor is the resonating element in a high-quality superconducting environment of NbTiN. We describe the response assuming an effective pair-breaking mechanism modifying the density of states and compare this to local tunneling spectra obtained using scanning tunneling spectroscopy. For the least disordered film (kFl=8.7, Rs=13Ω), we find good agreement, whereas for the most disordered film (kFl=0.82, Rs=4.3kΩ), there is a strong discrepancy, which signals the breakdown of a model based on uniform properties.
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Peltonen, J. T., Astafiev, O. V., Korneeva, Y. P., Voronov, B. M., Korneev, A. A., Charaev, I. M., et al. (2013). Coherent flux tunneling through NbN nanowires. Phys. Rev. B, 88(22), 220506 (1 to 5).
Abstract: We demonstrate evidence of coherent magnetic flux tunneling through superconducting nanowires patterned in a thin highly disordered NbN film. The phenomenon is revealed as a superposition of flux states in a fully metallic superconducting loop with the nanowire acting as an effective tunnel barrier for the magnetic flux, and reproducibly observed in different wires. The flux superposition achieved in the fully metallic NbN rings proves the universality of the phenomenon previously reported for InOx. We perform microwave spectroscopy and study the tunneling amplitude as a function of the wire width, compare the experimental results with theories, and estimate the parameters for existing theoretical models.
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Kardakova, A., Shishkin, A., Semenov, A., Goltsman, G. N., Ryabchun, S., Klapwijk, T. M., et al. (2016). Relaxation of the resistive superconducting state in boron-doped diamond films. Phys. Rev. B, 93(6), 064506.
Abstract: We report a study of the relaxation time of the restoration of the resistive superconducting state in single crystalline boron-doped diamond using amplitude-modulated absorption of (sub-)THz radiation (AMAR). The films grown on an insulating diamond substrate have a low carrier density of about 2.5×1021cm−3 and a critical temperature of about 2K. By changing the modulation frequency we find a high-frequency rolloff which we associate with the characteristic time of energy relaxation between the electron and the phonon systems or the relaxation time for nonequilibrium superconductivity. Our main result is that the electron-phonon scattering time varies clearly as T−2, over the accessible temperature range of 1.7 to 2.2 K. In addition, we find, upon approaching the critical temperature Tc, evidence for an increasing relaxation time on both sides of Tc.
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Finkel, M., Thierschmann, H. R., Galatro, L., Katan, A. J., Thoen, D. J., de Visser, P. J., et al. (2016). Branchline and directional THz coupler based on PECVD SiNx-technology. In 41st IRMMW-THz.
Abstract: A fabrication technology to realize THz microstrip lines and passive circuit components is developed and tested making use of a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition grown silicon nitride (PECVD SiNx) dielectric membrane. We use 2 μm thick SiNx and 300 nm thick gold layers on sapphire substrates. We fabricate a set of structures for thru-reflect-line (TRL) calibration, with the reflection standard implemented as a short through the via. We find losses of 9.5 dB/mm at 300 GHz for a 50 Ohm line. For a branchline coupler we measure 2.5 dB insertion loss, 1 dB amplitude imbalance and 21 dB isolation. Good control over the THz lines parameters is proven by similar performance of a set of 5 structures. The directional couplers show -14 dB transmission to the coupled port, -24 dB to the isolated port and -25 dB in reflection. The SiNx membrane, used as a dielectric, is compatible with atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilevers allowing the application of this technology to the development of a THz near-field microscope.
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Baselmans, J. J. A., Hajenius, M., Gao, J. R., Baryshev, A., Kooi, J., Klapwijk, T. M., et al. (2005). NbN hot electron bolometer mixers: sensitivity, LO power, direct detection and stability. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 15(2), 484–489.
Abstract: We demonstrate that the performance of NbN lattice cooled hot electron bolometer mixers depends strongly on the interface quality between the bolometer and the contact structure. Both the receiver noise temperature and the gain bandwidth can be improved by a factor of 2 by cleaning the interface and adding an additional superconducting interlayer to the contact pad. Using this we obtain a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 950 K at 2.5 THz and 4.3 K, using a 0.4/spl times/4 /spl mu/m HEB mixer with a spiral antenna. At the same bias point, we obtain an IF gain bandwidth of 6 GHz. To comply with current demands on THz mixers for use in space based receivers we reduce the device size to 0.15/spl times/1 /spl mu/m and use a twin slot antenna. We report measurements of the noise temperature, LO power requirement, stability and the direct detection effect, using a mixer with a 1.6 THz twin slot antenna and a 1.462 THz solid state LO source with calibrated output power.
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Hajenius, M., Barends, R., Gao, J. R., Klapwijk, T. M., Baselmans, J. J. A., Baryshev, A., et al. (2005). Local resistivity and the current-voltage characteristics of hot electron bolometer mixers. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 15(2), 495–498.
Abstract: Hot-electron bolometer devices, used successfully in low noise heterodyne mixing at frequencies up to 2.5 THz, have been analyzed. A distributed temperature numerical model of the NbN bridge, based on a local electron and a phonon temperature, is used to model pumped IV curves and understand the physical conditions during the mixing process. We argue that the mixing is predominantly due to the strongly temperature dependent local resistivity of the NbN. Experimentally we identify the origins of different transition temperatures in a real HEB device, suggesting the importance of the intrinsic resistive transition of the superconducting bridge in the modeling.
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Hajenius, M., Yang, Z. Q., Gao, J. R., Baselmans, J. J. A., Klapwijk, T. M., Voronov, B., et al. (2007). Optimized sensitivity of NbN hot electron bolometer mixers by annealing. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 17(2), 399–402.
Abstract: We report that the heterodyne sensitivity of superconducting hot-electron bolometers (HEBs) increases by 25-30% after annealing at 85degC in high vacuum. The devices studied are twin-slot antenna coupled mixers with a small area NbN bridge of 1 mum times 0.15 mum, above which there is a SiO 2 passivation layer. The mixer noise temperature, gain, and resistance versus temperature curve of a HEB before and after annealing are compared and analysed. We show that the annealing reduces the intrinsic noise of the mixer by 37% and makes the superconducting transition of the bridge and the contacts sharper. We argue that the reduction ofthe noise is mainly due to the improvement of the transparency of the contact/film interface. The lowest receiver noise temperature of 700 K is measured at a local oscillator frequency of 1.63 THz and at a bath temperature of 4.2 K.
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Gao, J. R., Hajenius, M., Yang, Z. Q., Baselmans, J. J. A., Khosropanah, P., Barends, R., et al. (2007). Terahertz superconducting hot electron bolometer heterodyne receivers. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 17(2), 252–258.
Abstract: We highlight the progress on NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers achieved through fruitful collaboration between SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research and Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. This includes the best receiver noise temperatures of 700 K at 1.63 THz using a twin-slot antenna mixer and 1050 K at 2.84 THz using a spiral antenna coupled HEB mixer. The mixers are based on thin NbN films on Si and fabricated with a new contact-process and-structure. By reducing their areas HEB mixers have shown an LO power requirement as low as 30 nW. Those small HEB mixers have demonstrated equivalent sensitivity as those with large areas provided the direct detection effect due to broadband radiation is removed. To manifest that a HEB based heterodyne receiver can in practice be used at arbitrary frequencies above 2 THz, we demonstrate a 2.8 THz receiver using a THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) as local oscillator.
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Kardakova, A. I., Coumou, P. C. J. J., Finkel, M. I., Morozov, D. V., An, P. P., Goltsman, G. N., et al. (2015). Electron–phonon energy relaxation time in thin strongly disordered titanium nitride films. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 25(3), 1–4.
Abstract: We have measured the energy relaxation times from the electron bath to the phonon bath in strongly disordered TiN films grown by atomic layer deposition. The measured values of τ eph vary from 12 to 91 ns. Over a temperature range from 3.4 to 1.7 K, they follow T -3 temperature dependence, which are consistent with values of τ eph reported previously for sputtered TiN films. For the most disordered film, with an effective elastic mean free path of 0.35 nm, we find a faster relaxation and a stronger temperature dependence, which may be an additional indication of the influence of strong disorder on a superconductor.
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Seliverstov, S., Maslennikov, S., Ryabchun, S., Finkel, M., Klapwijk, T. M., Kaurova, N., et al. (2015). Fast and sensitive terahertz direct detector based on superconducting antenna-coupled hot electron bolometer. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 25(3), 2300304.
Abstract: We characterize superconducting antenna-coupled hot-electron bolometers for direct detection of terahertz radiation operating at a temperature of 9.0 K. The estimated value of responsivity obtained from lumped-element theory is strongly different from the measured one. A numerical calculation of the detector responsivity is developed, using the Euler method, applied to the system of heat balance equations written in recurrent form. This distributed element model takes into account the effect of nonuniform heating of the detector along its length and provides results that are in better agreement with the experiment. At a signal frequency of 2.5 THz, the measured value of the optical detector noise equivalent power is 2.0 × 10-13 W · Hz-0.5. The value of the bolometer time constant is 35 ps. The corresponding energy resolution is about 3 aJ. This detector has a sensitivity similar to that of the state-of-the-art sub-millimeter detectors operating at accessible cryogenic temperatures, but with a response time several orders of magnitude shorter.
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