Abstract: A theory of an electron-heating mixer which makes it possible to calculate all the characteristics of the device is developed. It is shown that positive conversion gain is possible for such a mixer in the millimeter to near-infrared wavelength range. The dynamic range and the optimum heterodyne power can be selected from a very wide interval by varying the mixing element volume. Measurements made for Nb within the frequency range of 120-750 GHz confirm the theory. The conversion loss obtained at T=1.6 K and normalized to the element reaches 0.3 dB in the intermediate frequency band of 40 MHz; the possible noise temperature is 50 K. The estimation of noise temperature and output band for YBaCuO at T=77 yields 200 K and more than 10 GHz, respectively.

Abstract: The temperature and concentration dependences of the frequency bandwidth of terahertz heterodyne AlGaAs/GaAs detectors based on hot electron phenomena with phonon cooling of two-dimensional electrons have been measured by submillimeter spectroscopy with a high time resolution. At a temperature of 4.2 K, the frequency bandwidth at a level of 3 dB (f 3 dB) is varied from 150 to 250 MHz with a change in the concentration n s according to the power law f 3dB ∝ n −0.5 s due to the dominant contribution of piezoelectric phonon scattering. The minimum conversion loss of the semiconductor heterodyne detector is obtained in structures with a high carrier mobility (μ > 3 × 105 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 4.2 K).

Abstract: Epitaxial laser deposited YBa2Cu3O7−δ films of ∼50 nm thickness were patterned into detectors consisting of ten parallel 1 μm wide strips in order to study nonequilibrium and bolometric effects. Typically, the patterned samples had critical temperatures around 86 K, transition widths around 2 K and critical current densities above 1×106A/cm2 at 77 K. Pulsed laser measurements at 0.8 μm wavelength (17 ps full width at half maximum) showed a ∼30 ps response, attributed to electron heating, followed by a slower bolometric decay. Amplitude modulation in the band fmod=100 kHz–10 GHz of a laser with wavelength λ=0.8 μm showed two different thermal relaxations in the photoresponse. Phonon escape from the film (∼3 ns) is the limiting process, followed by heat diffusion in the substrate. Similar relaxations were also seen for λ=10.6 μm. The photoresponse measurements were made with the film in the resistive state and extended into the normal state. These states were created by supercritical bias currents. Measurements between 75 and 95 K (i.e., from below to above Tc) showed that the photoresponse was proportional to dR/dT for fmod=1 MHz and 4 GHz. The fast response is limited by the electron‐phonon scattering time, estimated to 1.8 ps from experimental data. The responsivity both at 0.8 and 10.6 μm wavelength was ∼1.2 V/W at fmod=1 GHz and the noise equivalent power was calculated to 1.5×10−9 WHz−1/2 for the fast response.

Abstract: The authors have investigated the photoinduced voltage response of a current-carrying structured YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ thin film to ultrashort far-infrared (FIR) laser pulses in the frequency range from 0.7 THz to 7 THz. The detector has shown an almost constant sensitivity of 1 mV/W and a noise equivalent power of less than 5*10/sup -7/ W/ square root Hz. The temperature dependence of the decay time of the detector signal was studied for temperatures around the transition temperature of the film ( approximately 80 K). For a detector temperature where dR/dT had its maximum, the authors observed bolometric signals with decay times of about 2 ns, and for lower temperatures they observed nonbolometric signals with decay times of approximately 120 ps; the duration of the nonbolometric signals was limited by the time resolution of the electronic registration equipment.