Hübers, H. - W., Schubert, J., Krabbe, A., Birk, M., Wagner, G., Semenov, A., et al. (2001). Parylene anti-reflection coating of a quasi-optical hot-electron-bolometric mixer at terahertz frequencies. Infrared Physics & Technology, 42(1), 41–47.
Abstract: Parylene C was investigated as anti-reflection coating for silicon at terahertz frequencies. Measurements with a Fourier-transform spectrometer show that the transmittance of pure silicon can be improved by about 30% when applying a layer of Parylene C with a quarter wavelength optical thickness. The 10% bandwidth of this coating extends from 1.5 to 3 THz for a center frequency of 2.3–2.5 THz, where the transmittance is constant. Heterodyne measurements demonstrate that the noise temperature of a hot-electron-bolometric mixer can be reduced significantly by coating the silicon lens of the hybrid antenna with a quarter wavelength Parylene C layer. Compared to the same mixer with an uncoated lens the improvement is about 30% at a frequency of 2.5 THz.
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Gol'tsman, G. N. (1999). Hot electron bolometric mixers: new terahertz technology. Infrared Physics & Technology, 40(3), 199–206.
Abstract: This 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 mixers has crossed the level of 1 K GHz−1 at 430 GHz (410 K), 600–650 GHz (480 K), 750 GHz (600 K), 810 GHz (780 K) and is close to that level at 1.1 THz (1250 K) and 2.5 THz (4500 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 about 100 nW for mixers made by e-beam lithography. A waveguide version of 800 GHz receiver was installed at the Submillimeter Telescope Observatory on Mt. Graham, AZ, to conduct astronomical observations of known submillimeter lines (CO, J=7→6, CI, J=2→1). It was proved that the receiver works as a practical instrument.
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Ozhegov, R. V., Gorshkov, K. N., Okunev, O. V., & Gol’tsman, G. N. (2010). Superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixer as element of thermal imager matrix. Tech. Phys. Lett., 36(11), 1006–1008.
Abstract: The possibility of using a matrix of sensitive elements on a 12-mm-diameter hyperhemispherical lens in a thermal imager operating in the terahertz range has been studied. Dimensions of a lens region acceptable for arrangement of the matrix, in which the receiver noise temperature varies within 16% of the mean value, are determined to be 3.3% of the lens diameter. Deviations of the main lobe of the directivity pattern are evaluated, which amount to ±1.25° relative to the direction toward the optimum position of a mixer. The fluctuation sensitivity of the receiver measured in experiment is 0.5 K at a frequency of 300 GHz.
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Gershenzon, E. M., Gol’tsman, G. N., Gousev, Y. P., Elant’ev, A. I., & Semenov, A. D. (1991). Electromagnetic radiation mixer based on electron heating in resistive state of superconductive Nb and YBaCuO films. IEEE Trans. Magn., 27(2), 1317–1320.
Abstract: A theory of an electron-heating mixer which makes it possible to calculate all the characteristics of the device is developed. It is shown that positive conversion gain is possible for such a mixer in the millimeter to near-infrared wavelength range. The dynamic range and the optimum heterodyne power can be selected from a very wide interval by varying the mixing element volume. Measurements made for Nb within the frequency range of 120-750 GHz confirm the theory. The conversion loss obtained at T=1.6 K and normalized to the element reaches 0.3 dB in the intermediate frequency band of 40 MHz; the possible noise temperature is 50 K. The estimation of noise temperature and output band for YBaCuO at T=77 yields 200 K and more than 10 GHz, respectively.
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Zhang, W., Miao, W., Zhong, J. Q., Shi, S. C., Hayton, D. J., Vercruyssen, N., et al. (2014). Temperature dependence of the receiver noise temperature and IF bandwidth of superconducting hot electron bolometer mixers. Supercond. Sci. Technol., 27(8), 085013 (1 to 5).
Abstract: In this paper we study the temperature dependence of the receiver noise temperature and IF noise bandwidth of superconducting hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers. Three superconducting NbN HEB devices of different transition temperatures (Tc) are measured at 0.85 THz and 1.4 THz at different bath temperatures (Tbath) between 4 K and 9 K. Measurement results demonstrate that the receiver noise temperature of superconducting NbN HEB devices is nearly constant for Tbath/Tc, less than 0.8, which is consistent with the simulation based on a distributed hot-spot model. In addition, the IF noise bandwidth appears independent of Tbath/Tc, indicating the dominance of phonon cooling in the investigated HEB devices.
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