| Records |
| Author |
Hajenius, M.; Baselmans, J. J. A.; Gao, J. R.; Klapwijk, T. M.; de Korte 2, P. A. J.; Voronov, B.; Gol’tsman, G. |
| Title |
Increased bandwidth of NbN phonon cooled hot electron bolometer mixers |
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Conference Article |
| Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Proc. 15th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. 15th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. |
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381-386 |
| Keywords |
NbN HEB mixers, IF bandwidth |
| Abstract |
We study experimentally the IF gain bandwidth of NbN phonon-cooled hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) mixers for a set of devices with different contact structures but an identical NbN film. We observe that the IF bandwidth depends strongly on the exact contact structure and find an IF gain bandwidth of 6 GHz for a device with an additional superconducting layer (NbTiN) in between the active NbN film and the gold contact to the antenna. These results contradict the common opinion that the IF bandwidth is determined by the phonon-escape time between the NbN film and the substrate. Hence we calculate the IF gain bandwidth of a superconducting film using a two-temperature model. We find that the bandwidth increases strongly with operating temperature and is not limited by the phonon escape time. This is because of strong temperature dependence of the phonon specific heat in the NbN film. |
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1494 |
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Gao, J. R.; Hajenius, M.; Baselmans, J. J. A.; Klapwijk, T. M.; de Korte, P. A. J.; Voronov, B.; Gol'tsman, G. |
| Title |
NbN hot electron bolometer mixers with superior performance for space applications |
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Conference Article |
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2004 |
Publication |
Proc. Int. workshop on low temp. electronics |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. Int. workshop on low temp. electronics |
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11-17 |
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NbN HEB mixers, applications |
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Noordwijk |
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Armandillo, E.; Leone, B. |
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International workshop on low temperature electronics- WOLTE 6 - Noordwijk |
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1496 |
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Baselmans, J. J. A.; Hajenius, M.; Gao, J. R.; Klapwijk, T. M.; de Korte, P. A. J.; Voronov, B.; Gol'tsman, G. |
| Title |
Noise performance of NbN hot electron bolometer mixers at 2.5 THz and its dependence on the contact resistance |
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Conference Article |
| Year |
2003 |
Publication |
Proc. 14th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. 14th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. |
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11-19 |
| Keywords |
NbN HEB mixers |
| Abstract |
NbN hot electron bolometer mixers (HEBM) are at this moment the best heterodyne receivers for frequencies above 1 Thz. However, the fabrication procedure of these devices is such that the quality of the interface between the NbN superconducting film and the contact structure is not under good control. The result is a low transparency interface between the bolometer itself and the contact/antenna structure. In this paper we report a detailed experimental study on a novel idea to increase the transparency of this interface. This leads to a record sensitivity and more reproducible performance. We compare identical bolometers, coupled with a spiral antenna, with different NbN bolometer-contact pad interfaces. We find that cleaning the NbN interface alone results in an increase in the noise temperature. However, cleaning the NbN interface and adding a thin additional superconductor prior to the gold contact deposition improves the noise temperature of the HEBm with more than a factor of 2. A device with a contact pad on top of an in-situ cleaned NbN film consisting of 10 nm of NbTiN and 40 nm of gold has a DSB noise temperature of 1050 K at 2.5 THz. |
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1497 |
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Baselmans, J. J. A.; Hajenius, M.; Gao, J.; de Korte, P.; Klapwijk, T. M.; Voronov, B.; Gol’tsman, G. |
| Title |
Doubling of sensitivity and bandwidth in phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixers |
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Conference Article |
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2004 |
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Proc. SPIE |
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Proc. SPIE |
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5498 |
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168-176 |
| Keywords |
Hot electron bolometers, bandwidth, noise temperature, experimental |
| Abstract |
NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers are at this moment the best heterodyne detectors for frequencies above 1 THz. However, the fabrication procedure of these devices is such that the quality of the interface between the NbN superconducting film and the contact structure is not under good control. This results in a contact resistance between the NbN bolometer and the contact pad. We compare identical bolometers, with different NbN – contact pad interfaces, coupled with a spiral antenna. We find that cleaning the NbN interface and adding a thin additional superconductor prior to the gold contact deposition improves the noise temperature and the bandwidth of the HEB mixers with more than a factor of 2. We obtain a DSB noise temperature of 950 K at 2.5 THz and a Gain bandwidth of 5-6 GHz. For use in real receiver systems we design small volume (0.15x1 micron) HEB mixers with a twin slot antenna. We find that these mixers combine good sensitivity (900 K at 1.6 THz) with low LO power requirement, which is 160 – 240 nW at the Si lens of the mixer. This value is larger than expected from the isothermal technique and the known losses in the lens by a factor of 3-3.5. |
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SPIE |
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Zmuidzinas, J.; Holland, W.S.; Withington, S. |
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Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors for Astronomy II |
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1744 |
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Baselmans, J. J. A.; Baryshev, A.; Hajenius, M.; Gao, J. R.; Klapwijk, T. M.; Voronov, B.; Gol'tsman, G. |
| Title |
Influence of the direct response on the heterodyne sensitivity of hot electron bolometer mixers |
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Abstract |
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2006 |
Publication |
Proc. 17th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. 17th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. |
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81 |
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NbN HEB mixers |
| Abstract |
We present a detailed experimental study of the direct detection effect in a small volume (0.15pm x lpm) NbN hot electron bolometer mixer. It is a quasioptical mixer with a twin slot antenna designed for 700 GHz and the measurement was done at a LO frequency of 670 GHz. The direct detection effect is characterized by a change in the mixer bias current when switching broadband radiation from a 300 K hot load to a 77 K cold load in a standard Y factor measurement. The result is, depending on the receiver under study, an increase or decrease in the receiver noise temperature. We find that the small signal noise temperature, which is the noise temperature that would be observed without the presence of the direct detection effect, and thus the one that is relevant for an astronomical observation, is 20% lower than the noise temperature obtained using 300 K and 77 K calibration loads. Thus, in our case the direct detection effect reduces the mixer sensitivity. These results are in good agreement with previous measurement at THz frequencies [1]. Other experiments report an increase in mixer sensitivity [2]. To analyze this discrepancy we have designed a separate set of experiments to find out the physical origin of the direct detection effect. Possible candidates are the bias current dependence of the mixer gain and the bias current dependence of the IF match. We measured directly the change in mixer IF match and receiver gain due to the direct detection effect. From these measurements we conclude that the direct detection effect is caused by a combination of bias current reduction when switching form the 77 K to the 300 K load in combination with the bias current dependence of the receiver gain. The bias current dependence of the receiver gain is shown to be mainly caused by the current dependence of the mixer gain. We also find that an increase in receiver sensitivity due to the direct detection effect is only possible if the noise temperature change due to the direct detection is dominated by the mixer-amplifier IF match. [1] J.J.A. Baselmans, A. Baryshev, S.F. Reker, M. Hajenius, J.R. Gao, T.M. Klapwijk, Yu.Vachtomin, S. Maslennikov, S. Antipov, B. Voronov, and G. Gol'tsman., Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 163503 (2005). [2] S. Svechnokov, A. Verevkin, B. Voronov, E. Menschikov. E. Gershenzon, G. Gol'tsman, 9th Int. Symp. On Space THz. Techn., 45, (1999). |
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