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Ren, Y., Zhang, D. X., Zhou, K. M., Miao, W., Zhang, W., Shi, S. C., et al. (2019). 10.6 μm heterodyne receiver based on a superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixer and a quantum cascade laser. AIP Advances, 9(7), 075307.
Abstract: We report on the development of a heterodyne receiver at mid-infrared wavelength for high-resolution spectroscopy applications. The receiver employs a superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer as a mixer and a room temperature distributed feedback quantum cascade laser operating at 10.6 μm (28.2 THz) as a local oscillator. The stabilization of the heterodyne receiver has been achieved using a feedback loop controlling the output power of the laser. Improved Allan variance times as well as a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 5000 K and a noise bandwidth of 2.8 GHz of the receiver system are demonstrated.
The work is supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant 2018YFA0404701, by the CAS program under Grant QYZDJ-SSW-SLH043 and GJJSTD20180003, by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant 11773083, by the “Hundred Talents Program” of the “Pioneer Initiative”, and in part by the CAS Key Lab for Radio Astronomy.
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Korneeva, Y. P., Vodolazov, D. Y., Semenov, A. V., Florya, I. N., Simonov, N., Baeva, E., et al. (2018). Optical single-photon detection in micrometer-scale NbN bridges. Phys. Rev. Applied, 9(6), 064037 (1 to 13).
Abstract: We demonstrate experimentally that single-photon detection can be achieved in micrometer-wide NbN bridges, with widths ranging from 0.53 to 5.15 μm and for photon wavelengths of 408 to 1550 nm. The microbridges are biased with a dc current close to the experimental critical current, which is estimated to be about 50% of the theoretically expected depairing current. These results offer an alternative to the standard superconducting single-photon detectors, based on nanometer-scale nanowires implemented in a long meandering structure. The results are consistent with improved theoretical modeling based on the theory of nonequilibrium superconductivity, including the vortex-assisted mechanism of initial dissipation.
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Tretyakov, I. V., Anfertyev, V. A., Revin, L. S., Kaurova, N. S., Voronov, B. M., Vaks, V. L., et al. (2018). Sensitivity and resolution of a heterodyne receiver based on the NbN HEB mixer with a quantum-cascade laser as a local oscillator. Radiophys. Quant. Electron., 60(12), 988–992.
Abstract: We present the results of experimental studies of the basic characteristics and operation features of a terahertz heterodyne detector based on the superconducting NbN HEB mixer and a quantum cascade laser as a local oscillator operating at a frequency of 2.02 THz. The measured noise temperature of such a mixer amounted to 1500 K. The spectral resolution of the detector is determined by the width of the local-oscillator spectral line whose measured value does not exceed 1 MHz. The quantum-cascade laser could be linearly tuned with respect to frequency with the coefficient 7.2 MHz/mA within the limits of the current oscillation bandwidth.
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Seliverstov, S. V., Anfertyev, V. A., Tretyakov, I. V., Ozheredov, I. A., Solyankin, P. M., Revin, L. S., et al. (2017). Terahertz heterodyne receiver with an electron-heating mixer and a heterodyne based on the quantum-cascade laser. Radiophys. Quant. Electron., 60(7), 518–524.
Abstract: We study characteristics of the laboratory prototype of a terahertz heterodyne receiver with an electron-heating mixer and a heterodyne based on the quantum-cascade laser. The results obtained demonstrate the possibility to use this receiver as a basis for creation of a high-sensitivity terahertz spectrometer, which can be used in many basic and practical applications. A significant advantage of this receiver will be the possibility of placing the mixer and heterodyne in the same cryostat, which will reduce the device dimensions considerably. The obtained experimental results are analyzed, and methods of optimizing the parameters of the receiver are proposed.
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Trifonov, A., Tong, C. - Y. E., Grimes, P., Lobanov, Y., Kaurova, N., Blundell, R., et al. (2017). Development of a silicon membrane-based multipixel hot electron bolometer receiver. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 27(4), 1–5.
Abstract: We report on the development of a multipixel hot electron bolometer (HEB) receiver fabricated using silicon membrane technology. The receiver comprises a 2 × 2 array of four HEB mixers, fabricated on a single chip. The HEB mixer chip is based on a superconducting NbN thin-film deposited on top of the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The thicknesses of the device layer and handling layer of the SOI substrate are 20 and 300 μm, respectively. The thickness of the device layer is chosen such that it corresponds to a quarter-wave in silicon at 1.35 THz. The HEB mixer is integrated with a bow-tie antenna structure, in turn designed for coupling to a circular waveguide, fed by a monolithic drilled smooth-walled horn array.
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