Trifonov, A., Tong, C. - Y. E., Lobanov, Y., Kaurova, N., Blundell, R., & Goltsman, G. (2017). Photon absorption near the gap frequency in a hot electron bolometer. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 27(4), 1–4.
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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Kawamura, J., Blundell, R., Tong, C. - Y. E., Gol'tsman, G., Gershenzon, E., Voronov, B., et al. (1997). Phonon-cooled NbN HEB mixers for submillimeter wavelengths. In Proc. 8th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 23–28).
Abstract: The noise performance of receivers incorporating NbN phonon-cooled superconducting hot electron bolometric mixers is measured from 200 GHz to 900 GHz. The mixer elements are thin-film (thickness — 4 nm) NbN with —5 to 40 pm area fabricated on crystalline quartz sub- strates. The receiver noise temperature from 200 GHz to 900 GHz demonstrates no unexpected degradation with increasing frequency, being roughly TRx ,; 1-2 K The best receiver noise temperatures are 410 K (DSB) at 430 GHz, 483 K at 636 GHz, and 1150 K at 800 GHz.
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Gol’tsman, G. N., & Gershenzon, E. M. (1999). Phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixer: overview of recent results. Appl. Supercond., 6(10-12), 649–655.
Abstract: The paper presents an overview of recent results for NbN phonon-cooled hot electron bolometric (HEB) mixers. The noise temperature of the receivers based on both quasioptical and waveguide versions of HEB mixer has crossed the level of 1 K·GHz−1 at 430 GHz (410 K) and 600–650 GHz (480 K) and is close to this level at 820 GHz (1100 K) and 900 GHz (980 K). The gain bandwidth measured for quasioptical HEB mixer at 620 GHz reached 4 GHz and the noise temperature bandwidth was almost 8 GHz. Local oscillator power requirements are about 1 μW for mixers made by photolithography and are about 100 nW for mixers made by e-beam lithography. The studies in terahertz receivers based on HEB superconducting mixers now present a dynamic, rapidly developing field.
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Sergeev, A. V., & Livanov, D. V. (1993). Phonon renormalization of thermoelectric power of high-Tc materials. In M. Meissner, & R. O. Pohl (Eds.), Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter VII. Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences (Vol. 112, pp. 204–205).
Abstract: Renormalization of thermoelectric power due to Nielsen — Taylor effect (interference between electron-phonon and electron- impurity interactions) is used for the explanation of the temperature dependence and sign of the thermopower in high-Tc materials. In the framework of the model the negative sign of TEP of untwinned YBa2Cu3O7−x crystal in a-direction observed by Howson et. al. is connected to the strong hole scattering via O-vacancies in chains.
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Ekström, H., Kollberg, E., Yagoubov, P., Gol'tsman, G., Gershenzon, E., & Yngvesson, S. (1997). Phonon cooled ultra thin NbN hot electron bolometer mixers at 620 GHz. In Proc. 8th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 29–35).
Abstract: We have measured the noise performance and gain bandwidth of 35 A thin NbN hot-electron mixers integrated with spiral antennas on silicon substrate lenses at 620 GHz. A double-sideband receiver noise temperature less than 1300 K has been obtained with a 3 dB bandwidth of GHz. The gain bandwidth is 3.2 GHz. A lower noise temperature of 1100 K has been achieved with an improved set-up. The mixer output noise dominated by thermal fluctuations is about 50-60 K, and the SSB receiver and intrinsic conversion gain is about -18 and -12 dB, respectively. Without mismatch losses and excluding the loss from the beamsplitter, we expect to achieve a receiver noise temperature of less than 700 K.
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