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Author Tretyakov, Ivan; Ryabchun, Sergey; Finkel, Matvey; Maslennikov, Sergey; Maslennikova, Anna; Kaurova, Natalia; Lobastova, Anastasia; Voronov, Boris; Gol'tsman, Gregory
Title Ultrawide noise bandwidth of NbN hot-electron bolometer mixers with in situ gold contacts Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. Abbreviated Journal
Volume 21 Issue (down) 3 Pages 620-623
Keywords NbN HEB mixer bandwidth
Abstract We report a noise bandwidth of 7 GHz in the new generation of NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers that are being developed for the space observatory Millimetron. The HEB receiver driven by a 2.5-THz local oscillator offered a noise temperature of 600 K in a 50-MHz final detection bandwidth. As the filter center frequency was swept this value remained nearly constant up to the cutoff frequency of the cryogenic amplifier at 7 GHz. We believe that such a low value of the noise temperature is due to reduced radio frequency (RF) loss at the interface between the superconducting film and the gold contacts. We have also performed gain bandwidth measurements at the superconducting transition on HEB mixers with various lengths and found them to be in excellent agreement with the results of the analytical and numerical models developed for the HEB mixer with both diffusion and phonon cooling of hot electrons.
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Call Number RPLAB @ gujma @ Serial 716
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Author Lobanov, Y.; Tong, E.; Blundell, R.; Hedden, A.; Voronov, B.; Gol'tsman, G.
Title Large-signal frequency response of an HEB mixer: from 300 MHz to terahertz Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. Abbreviated Journal
Volume 21 Issue (down) 3 Pages 628-631
Keywords waveguide NbN HEB mixers
Abstract We present a study of the large signal frequency response of an HEB mixer over a wide frequency range. In our experiments, we have subjected the HEB mixer to incident electromagnetic radiation from 0.3 GHz to 1 THz. The mixer element is an NbN film deposited on crystalline quartz. The mixer chip is mounted in a waveguide cavity, coupled to free space with a diagonal horn. At microwave frequencies, electromagnetic radiation is applied through the coaxial bias port of the mixer block. At higher frequencies the input signal passes via the diagonal horn feed. At each frequency, the incident power is varied and a family of I-V curves is recorded. From the curves we identify 3 distinct regimes of operation of the mixer separated by the phonon relaxation frequency and the superconducting energy gap frequency observed at about 3 GHz and 660 GHz respectively. In this paper, we will present observed curves and discuss the results of our experiment.
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Call Number RPLAB @ gujma @ Serial 719
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Author Lobanov, Y.V.; Tong, C.-Y.E.; Hedden, A.S.; Blundell, R.; Voronov, B.M.; Gol'tsman, G.N.
Title Direct measurement of the gain and noise bandwidths of HEB mixers Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. Abbreviated Journal IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.
Volume 21 Issue (down) 3 Pages 645-648
Keywords waveguide NbN HEB mixers
Abstract The intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth of a hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer is an important parameter of the mixer, in that it helps to determine its suitability for a given application. With the availability of wideband low noise amplifiers, it is simple to measure the performance of an HEB mixer over a wide range of IF at a fixed LO frequency using the standard Y-factor method. This in-situ method allows us to measure both the gain and noise bandwidths simultaneously. We have also measured mixer output impedance with a vector network analyser. Intrinsic time constant has been extracted from the impedance data and compared to the mixer's bandwidths determined from receiver Y-factor measurement.
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Call Number RPLAB @ gujma @ Serial 720
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Author Trifonov, A.; Tong, C.-Y. E.; Blundell, R.; Ryabchun, S.; Gol'tsman, G.
Title Probing the stability of HEB mixers with microwave injection Type Journal Article
Year 2015 Publication IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. Abbreviated Journal IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.
Volume 25 Issue (down) 3 Pages 2300404 (1 to 4)
Keywords NbN HEB mixer, stability, Allan-variance
Abstract Using a microwave probe as a tool, we have performed experiments aimed at understanding the origin of the output-power fluctuations in hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) mixers. We use a probe frequency of 1.5 GHz. The microwave probe picks up impedance changes of the HEB, which are examined upon demodulation of the reflected wave outside the cryostat. This study shows that the HEB mixer operates in two different regimes under a terahertz pump. At a low pumping level, strong pulse modulation is observed, as the device switches between the superconducting state and the normal state at a rate of a few megahertz. When pumped much harder, to approximate the low-noise mixer operating point, residual modulation can still be observed, showing that the HEB mixer is intrinsically unstable even in the resistive state. Based on these observations, we introduced a low-frequency termination to the HEB mixer. By terminating the device in a 50-Ω resistor in the megahertz frequency range, we have been able to improve the output-power Allan time of our HEB receiver by a factor of four to about 10 s for a detection bandwidth of 15 MHz, with a corresponding gain fluctuation of about 0.035%.
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ISSN 1051-8223 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 1355
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Author Tong, C.-Y. E.; Trifonov, A.; Shurakov, A.; Blundell, R.; Gol’tsman, G.
Title A microwave-operated hot-electron-bolometric power detector for terahertz radiation Type Journal Article
Year 2015 Publication IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. Abbreviated Journal IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.
Volume 25 Issue (down) 3 Pages 2300604 (1 to 4)
Keywords NbN HEB mixer
Abstract A new class of microwave-operated THz power detectors based on the NbN hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) mixer is proposed. The injected microwave signal ( 1 GHz) serves the dual purpose of pumping the HEB element and enabling the read-out of the internal state of the device. A cryogenic amplifier amplifies the reflected microwave signal from the device and a homodyne scheme recovers the effects of the incident THz radiation. Two modes of operation have been identified, depending on the level of incident radiation. For weak signals, we use a chopper to chop the incident radiation against a black body reference and a lock-in amplifier to perform synchronous detection of the homodyne readout. The voltage measured is proportional to the incident power, and we estimate an optical noise equivalent power of  5pW/ √Hz at 0.83 THz. At higher signal levels, the homodyne circuit recovers the stream of steady relaxation oscillation pulses from the HEB device. The frequency of these pulses is in the MHz frequency range and bears a linear relationship with the incident THz radiation over an input power range of  15 dB. A digital frequency counter is used to measure THz power. The applicable power range is between 1 nW and 1 μW.
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ISSN 1558-2515 ISBN Medium
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Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 1354
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