Semenov, A. D., Gousev, Y. P., Nebosis, R. S., Renk, K. F., Yagoubov, P., Voronov, B. M., et al. (1996). Heterodyne detection of THz radiation with a superconducting hot‐electron bolometer mixer. Appl. Phys. Lett., 69(2), 260–262.
Abstract: We report on the use of a superconducting hot‐electron bolometer mixer for heterodyne detection of terahertz radiation. Radiation with a wavelength of 119 μm was coupled to the mixer, a NbN microbridge, by a hybrid quasioptical antenna consisting of an extended hyperhemispherical lens and a planar logarithmic spiral antenna. We found, at an intermediate frequency of 1.5 GHz, a system double side band noise temperature of ≊40 000 K and conversion losses of 25 dB. We also discuss the possibilities of further improvement of the mixer performance.
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Li, T. F., Pashkin, Y. A., Astafiev, O., Nakamura, Y., Tsai, J. S., & Im, H. (2008). High-frequency metallic nanomechanical resonators. Appl. Phys. Lett., 92, 043112(1)-043112(3).
Abstract: We developed a technology to fabricate fully metallic doubly clamped beams working as nanomechanical resonators. Measured with a magnetomotive detection scheme, the beams, made of polycrystalline metal films, show as good quality as previously reported ones made of single crystal materials, such as Si, GaAs, AlN, and SiC. Our method is compatible with the conventional fabrication process for nanoscale electronic circuits and thus offers a possibility of easily integrating the beams into superconducting charge and flux qubits and single-electron transistors as well as coupling them to coplanar waveguide resonators.
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Kataoka, T., Kajikawa, K., Kitagawa, J., Kadoya, Y., & Takemura, Y. (2010). Improved sensitivity of terahertz detection by GaAs photoconductive antennas excited at 1560 nm. Appl. Phys. Lett., 97, 201110 (1–3).
Abstract: The terahertz detection by photoconductive antennas (PCAs) based on low-temperature grown (LTG) GaAs with 1.5 μm pulse excitation was revisited. We found that the detection efficiency can be improved by a factor of 10 (20 dB) by reducing the excitation spot size and the gap length of the PCA, maintaining the low noise feature of the PCA on LTG GaAs. As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio higher than 50 dB was obtained at a reasonable incident power of 9.5 mW, suggesting that the scheme is promising for the detection of terahertz waves in practical time domain systems.
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An, Z., Chen, J. - C., Ueda, T., Komiyama, S., & Hirakawa, K. (2005). Infrared phototransistor using capacitively coupled two-dimensional electron gas layers. Appl. Phys. Lett., 86, 172106-3.
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Sekine, N., & Hosako, I. (2009). Intensity modulation of terahertz quantum cascade lasers under external light injection. Appl. Phys. Lett., 95, 201106(1–3).
Abstract: We investigated the light-current characteristics of terahertz (THz) quantum cascade lasers under external light injection, which excites interband transitions in the active materials. It was found that the amount of reduction in the THz power was constant for all injection currents above threshold, and the dependence of the reduction amount on the wavelength of the external light was observed to show a resonancelike feature. The dominant intensity modulation mechanism was found to be the loss change caused by interband transitions in the active region. Further, the effective coupling efficiency plays an important role in the intensity modulation.
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Kerman, A. J., Dauler, E. A., Keicher, W. E., Yang, J. K. W., Berggren, K. K., Gol’tsman, G., et al. (2006). Kinetic-inductance-limited reset time of superconducting nanowire photon counters. Appl. Phys. Lett., 88(11), 111116 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We investigate the recovery of superconducting NbN-nanowire photon counters after detection of an optical pulse at a wavelength of 1550nm, and present a model that quantitatively accounts for our observations. The reset time is found to be limited by the large kinetic inductance of these nanowires, which forces a tradeoff between counting rate and either detection efficiency or active area. Devices of usable size and high detection efficiency are found to have reset times orders of magnitude longer than their intrinsic photoresponse time.
The authors acknowledge D. Oates and W. Oliver (MIT Lincoln Laboratory), S.W. Nam, A. Miller, and R. Hadfield (NIST) and R. Sobolewski, A. Pearlman, and A. Verevkin (University of Rochester) for helpful discussions and technical assistance. This work made use of MIT’s shared scanning-electron-beam-lithography facility in the Research Laboratory of Electronics. This work is sponsored by the United States Air Force under Air Force Contract No. FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, recommendations and conclusions are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.
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Walther, C., Scalari, G., Faist, J., Beere, H., & Ritchie, D. (2006). Low frequency terahertz quantum cascade laser operating from 1.6 to 1.8 THz. Appl. Phys. Lett., 89, 231121(1–3).
Abstract: The authors report a GaAs/Al0.1Ga0.9As quantum cascade laser based on a bound-to-continuum transition optimized for low frequency operation. High tunability of the gain curve is achieved by the Stark effect and laser emission is measured between 1.6 and 1.8 THz. Pulsed mode operation up to 95 K and continuous wave operation up to 80 K are reported. The dynamical range in current is as high as 43%.
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Tretyakov, I., Ryabchun, S., Finkel, M., Maslennikova, A., Kaurova, N., Lobastova, A., et al. (2011). Low noise and wide bandwidth of NbN hot-electron bolometer mixers. Appl. Phys. Lett., 98, 033507 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We report a record double sideband noise temperature of 600 K (5hν/kB) offered by a NbN hot-electron bolometer receiver at 2.5 THz. Allowing for standing wave effects, this value was found to be constant in the intermediate frequency range 1–7 GHz, which indicates that the mixer has an unprecedentedly large noise bandwidth in excess of 7 GHz. The insight into this is provided by gain bandwidth measurements performed at the superconducting transition. They show that the dependence of the bandwidth on the mixer length follows the model for an HEB mixer with diffusion and phonon cooling of the hot electrons.
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Khosropanah, P., Gao, J. R., Laauwen, W. M., Hajenius, M., & Klapwijk, T. M. (2007). Low noise NbN hot electron bolometer mixer at 4.3 THz. Appl. Phys. Lett., 91, 221111 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We have studied the sensitivity of a superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer mixer integrated with a spiral antenna at 4.3 THz. Using hot/cold blackbody loads and a beam splitter all in vacuum, we measured a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 1300 K at the optimum local oscillator (LO) power of 330 nW, which is about 12 times the quantum noise (hnu/2kB). Our result indicates that there is no sign of degradation of the mixing process at the superterahertz frequencies. Moreover, a measurement method is introduced which allows us for an accurate determination of the sensitivity despite LO power fluctuations.
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Kawamura, J., Blundell, R., Tong, C. -yu E., Gol’tsman, G., Gershenzon, E., Voronov, B., et al. (1997). Low noise NbN lattice-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometric mixers at submillimeter wavelengths. Appl. Phys. Lett., 70(12), 1619–1621.
Abstract: Lattice-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometric mixers are used in a submillimeter-wave waveguide heterodyne receiver. The mixer elements are niobium nitride film with 3.5 nm thickness and ∼10 μm2 area. The local oscillator power for optimal performance is estimated to be 0.5 μW, and the instantaneous bandwidth is 2.2 GHz. At an intermediate frequency centered at 1.4 GHz with 200 MHz bandwidth, the double sideband receiver noise temperature is 410 K at 430 GHz. The receiver has been used to detect molecular line emission in a laboratory gas cell.
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Dorenbos, S. N., Reiger, E. M., Perinetti, U., Zwiller, V., Zijlstra, T., & Klapwijk, T. M. (2008). Low noise superconducting single photon detectors on silicon. Appl. Phys. Lett., 93(13), 131101.
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Gao, J. R., Hajenius, M., Tichelaar, F. D., Klapwijk, T. M., Voronov, B., Grishin, E., et al. (2007). Monocrystalline NbN nanofilms on a 3C-SiC∕Si substrate. Appl. Phys. Lett., 91(6), 062504 (1 to 3).
Abstract: The authors have realized NbN (100) nanofilms on a 3C-SiC (100)/Si(100) substrate by dc reactive magnetron sputtering at 800°C. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) is used to characterize the films, showing a monocrystalline structure and confirming epitaxial growth on the 3C-SiC layer. A film ranging in thickness from 3.4to4.1nm shows a superconducting transition temperature of 11.8K, which is the highest reported for NbN films of comparable thickness. The NbN nano-films on 3C-SiC offer a promising alternative to improve terahertz detectors. For comparison, NbN nanofilms grown directly on Si substrates are also studied by HRTEM.
The authors acknowledge S. V. Svetchnikov at National Centre for HRTEM at Delft, who prepared the specimens for HRTEM inspections. This work was supported by the EU through RadioNet and INTAS.
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Gaggero, A., Nejad, S. J., Marsili, F., Mattioli, F., Leoni, R., Bitauld, D., et al. (2010). Nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors on GaAs for integrated quantum photonic applications. Appl. Phys. Lett., 97(15), 3.
Abstract: We demonstrate efficient nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs) based on NbN thin films grown on GaAs. NbN films ranging from 3 to 5 nm in thickness have been deposited by dc magnetron sputtering on GaAs substrates at 350 °C. These films show superconducting properties comparable to similar films grown on sapphire and MgO. In order to demonstrate the potential for monolithic integration, SSPDs were fabricated and measured on GaAs/AlAs Bragg mirrors, showing a clear cavity enhancement, with a peak quantum efficiency of 18.3% at λ = 1300 nm and T = 4.2 K.
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Siddiqi, I., & Prober, D. E. (2004). Nb–Au bilayer hot-electron bolometers for low-noise THz heterodyne detection. Appl. Phys. Lett., 84(8), 1404.
Abstract: The sensitivity of present Nb diffusion-cooled hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers is not quantum limited, and can be improved by reducing the superconducting transition temperature TC. Lowering TC reduces thermal fluctuations, resulting in a decrease of the mixer noise temperature TM. However, lower TC mixers have reduced dynamic range and saturate more easily due to background noise. We present 30 GHz microwave measurements on a bilayer HEB system, Nb–Au, in which TC can be tuned with Au layer thickness to obtain the maximum sensitivity for a given noise background. These measurements are intended as a guide for the optimization of THz mixers. Using a Nb–Au mixer with TC = 1.6 K, we obtain TM = 50 K with 2 nW of local oscillator (LO) power. Good mixer performance is observed over a wide range of LO power and bias voltage and such a device should not exhibit saturation in a THz receiver.
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Yagoubov, P., Kroug, M., Merkel, H., Kollberg, E., Gol'tsman, G., Svechnikov, S., et al. (1998). Noise temperature and local oscillator power requirement of NbN phonon-cooled hot electron bolometric mixers at terahertz frequencies. Appl. Phys. Lett., 73(19), 2814–2816.
Abstract: In this letter, the noise performance of NbN-based phonon-cooled hot electron bolometric quasioptical mixers is investigated in the 0.55–1.1 THz frequency range. The best results of the double-sideband <cd><2018>DSB<cd><2019> noise temperature are: 500 K at 640 GHz, 600 K at 750 GHz, 850 K at 910 GHz, and 1250 K at 1.1 THz. The water vapor in the signal path causes significant contribution to the measured receiver noise temperature around 1.1 THz. The devices are made from 3-nm-thick NbN film on high-resistivity Si and integrated with a planar spiral antenna on the same substrate. The in-plane dimensions of the bolometer strip are typically 0.2Ï«2 um. The amount of local oscillator power absorbed in the bolometer is less than 100 nW.
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