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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Zhang, W., Jiang, L., Lin, Z. H., Yao, Q. J., Li, J., Shi, S. C., et al. (2005). Development of a quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB mixer. In Proc. 16th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 209–213).
Abstract: In this paper, we report the performance of a quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB (hot electron bolometer) mixer measured at 500 and 850GHz. The quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB mixer is cryogenically cooled by a 4-K close-cycled refrigerator. Measured receiver noise temperature at 850 and 500GHz are 3000K and 2500K respectively with wire grid as beamsplitter, while the lowest receiver noise temperature is found to be approximately 1200K with Mylar film. The theoretical receiver noise temperature (taking into account the elliptical polarization of log-spiral antenna) is consistent with measured one. The receiver noise temperature and conversion gain with 15-μm Mylar film as the beamsplitter at 500GHz are thoroughly investigated for different LO pumping levels and dc biases. The stability of the mixer’s IF output power is also demonstrated.
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Shcherbatenko, M., Lobanov, Y., Finkel, M., Maslennikov, S., Pentin, I., Semenov, A., et al. (2014). Development of a 30 THz heterodyne receiver based on a hot-electron-bolometer mixer. In Proc. 25th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (122).
Abstract: We present new Hot-Electron-Bolometer (HEB) mixers designed for mid-IR spectroscopy targeting astrophysical and geophysical observations where high sensitivity and spectral resolution are required. The mixers are made of an ultrathin NbN film deposited on GaAs substrates. Two entirely different types of the devices have been fabricated. The first type is based on a direct radiation coupling concept and the mixing devices are shaped as squares of 5×5 μm 2 (which corresponds to the diffraction limit at the chosen wavelength) and 10×10 μm 2 (which was used to establish a possible influence of the contact pads on the radiation absorption). The second type utilizes a spiral antenna designed with HFSS. The fabrication and layout of the devices as well as the performance comparison will be presented. During the experiments, the HEB mixer was installed on the cold plate of a LHe cryostat. A germanium window and an extended semi-spherical germanium lens are used to couple the radiation. The cryostat is equipped with a germanium optical filter of thickness 0.5 mm and with a center wavelength of 10.6 mμ. The incident power absorption is measured by using the isothermal method. As a Local Oscillator, a 10.6 micrometers line of a CO2 gas laser is used. We further characterize the frequency response of the spiral antenna with a FIR-spectrometer. The noise characteristics of the mixers are determined from a room temperature cold load and a heated black body at ~600 K as a hot load.
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Semenov, A. D., Hübers, H. - W., Schubert, J., Gol'tsman, G. N., Elantiev, A. I., Voronov, B. M., et al. (2000). Design and performance of the lattice-cooled hot-electron terahertz mixer. J. Appl. Phys., 88(11), 6758–6767.
Abstract: We present the measurements and the theoreticalmodel of the frequency-dependent noise temperature of a superconductor lattice-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixer in the terahertz frequency range. The increase of the noise temperature with frequency is a cumulative effect of the nonuniform distribution of the high-frequency current in the bolometer and the charge imbalance, which occurs at the edges of the normal domain and at the contacts with normal metal. We show that under optimal operation the fluctuation sensitivity of the mixer is determined by thermodynamic fluctuations of the noise power, whereas at small biases there appears additional noise, which is probably due to the flux flow. We propose the prescription of how to minimize the influence of the current distribution on the mixer performance.
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Zhang, W., Li, N., Jiang, L., Ren, Y., Yao, Q. - J., Lin, Z. - H., et al. (2008). Dependence of noise temperature of quasi-optical superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixers on bath temperature and optical-axis displacement. In C. Zhang, & X. - C. Zhang (Eds.), Proc. SPIE (Vol. 6840, 684007 (1 to 8)). Spie.
Abstract: It is known that the increase of bath temperature results in the decrease of critical current of superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers owing to the depression of superconductivity, thus leading to the degradation of the mixer’s sensitivity. Here we report our study on the effect of bath temperature on the heterodyne mixing performance of quasi-optical superconducting NbN HEB mixers incorporated with a two-arm log-spiral antenna. The correlation between the bath temperature, critical current, LO power requirement and noise temperature is investigated at 0.5 THz. Furthermore, the heterodyne mixing performance of quasi-optical superconducting NbN HEB mixers is examined while there is an optical-axis displacement between the center of the extended hemispherical silicon lens and the superconducting NbN HEB device, which is placed on the back of the lens. Detailed experimental results and analysis are presented.
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Barends, R., Hajenius, M., Gao, J. R., & Klapwijk, T. M. (2005). Current-induced vortex unbinding in bolometer mixers. Appl. Phys. Lett., 87, 263506 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We present a description of the current-voltage characteristics of hot electron bolometers in terms of the current-dependent intrinsic resistive transition of NbN films. We find that, by including this current dependence, we can correctly predict the complete current-voltage characteristics, showing excellent agreement with measurements for both low and high bias and for small as well as large devices. It is assumed that the current dependence is due to vortex-antivortex unbinding as described in the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless theory. The presented approach will be useful in guiding device optimization for noise and bandwidth.
Keywords: HEB mixer numerical model, HEB model, IV-curves, vortex-antivortex, Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless theory, diffusion cooling channel, diffusion channel, distributed HEB model, distributed model, self-heating effect, temperature profile
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Gousev, Y. P., Semenov, A. D., Goghidze, I. G., Pechen, E. V., Varlashkin, A. V., Gol'tsman, G. N., et al. (1997). Current dependent noise in a YBa2Cu3O7-δ hot-electron bolometer. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 7(2), 3556–3559.
Abstract: We investigated the output noise of a YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) in a large frequency range (10 kHz to 8 GHz); the bolometer either consisted of a structured 50 nm thick YBCO film on LaAlO/sub 3/ or a 30 nm thick film on a MgO substrate. We found that flicker noise dominated at low frequencies (below 1 MHz), while at higher frequencies Johnson noise and a current dependent noise were the main noise sources.
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Hans Ekstrom, Karasik, B. S., Kollberg, E. L., & Sigfrid Yngvesson. (1995). Conversion gain and noise of niobium superconducting hot–electron–mixers. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 43(4), 938–947.
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Svechnikov, S. I., Antipov, S. V., Vakhtomin, Y. B., Goltsman, G. N., Gershenzon, E. M., Cherednichenko, S. I., et al. (2001). Conversion and noise bandwidths of terahertz NbN hot-electron bolometer mixers. Physics of Vibrations, 9(3), 205–210.
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Il'in, K. S., Cherednichenko, S. I., Gol'tsman, G. N., Currie, M., & Sobolewski, R. (1998). Comparative study of the bandwidth of phonon-cooled NbN hot-electron bolometers in submillimeter and optical wavelength ranges. In Proc. 9th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 323–330).
Abstract: We report the results of the bandwidth measurements of NbN hot-electron bolometers, perfomied in the terahertz frequency domain at 140 GHz and 660 GHz and in time domain in the optical range at the wavelength of 395 nm.. Our studies were done on 3.5-nm-thick NbN films evaporated on sapphire substrates and patterned into ilin-size microbridges. In order to measure the gain bandwidth, we used two identical BWOs (140 or 660 GHz), one functioning as a local oscillator and the other as a signal source. The bandwidth we achieved was 3.5-4 GHz at 4.2 K with the optimal LO and DC biases. Time-domain measurements with a resolution below 300 fs were performed using an electro-optic sampling system, in the temperature range between 4.2 K to 9 K at various values of the bias current and optical power. The obtained response time of the NbN hot-electron bolometer to —100- fs-wide Ti:sapphire laser pulses was about 27 ps, what corresponds to the 5.9 GHz gain bandwidth.
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