| Records |
| Author |
Trifonov, A.; Tong, C.-Y. E.; Lobanov, Y.; Kaurova, N.; Blundell, R.; Goltsman, G. |
| Title |
Photon absorption near the gap frequency in a hot electron bolometer |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2017 |
Publication |
IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. |
Abbreviated Journal |
IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. |
| Volume |
27 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
1-4 |
| Keywords |
NBN HEB mixer |
| 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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1558-2515 |
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1331 |
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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 |
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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1558-2515 |
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1354 |
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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 |
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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1051-8223 |
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1355 |
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| Author |
Zhang, W.; Miao, W.; Zhong, J. Q.; Shi, S. C.; Hayton, D. J.; Vercruyssen, N.; Gao, J. R.; Goltsman, G. N. |
| Title |
Temperature dependence of the receiver noise temperature and IF bandwidth of superconducting hot electron bolometer mixers |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2014 |
Publication |
Supercond. Sci. Technol. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Supercond. Sci. Technol. |
| Volume |
27 |
Issue |
8 |
Pages |
085013 (1 to 5) |
| Keywords |
NbN HEB mixers |
| Abstract |
In this paper we study the temperature dependence of the receiver noise temperature and IF noise bandwidth of superconducting hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers. Three superconducting NbN HEB devices of different transition temperatures (Tc) are measured at 0.85 THz and 1.4 THz at different bath temperatures (Tbath) between 4 K and 9 K. Measurement results demonstrate that the receiver noise temperature of superconducting NbN HEB devices is nearly constant for Tbath/Tc, less than 0.8, which is consistent with the simulation based on a distributed hot-spot model. In addition, the IF noise bandwidth appears independent of Tbath/Tc, indicating the dominance of phonon cooling in the investigated HEB devices. |
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0953-2048 |
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1358 |
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Semenov, A.; Richter, H.; Hübers, H.-W.; Petrenko, D.; Tretyakov, I.; Ryabchun, S.; Finkel, M.; Kaurova, N.; Gol’tsman, G.; Risacher, C.; Ricken, O.; Güsten, R. |
| Title |
Optimization of the intermediate frequency bandwidth in the THz HEB mixers |
Type |
Abstract |
| Year |
2014 |
Publication |
Proc. 25th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. 25th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. |
| Volume |
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Issue |
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Pages |
54 |
| Keywords |
NbN HEB mixer |
| 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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1359 |
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