Abstract: Interest in research in the terahertz range is driven by a great number of various applications, where terahertz instruments may play a leading role. To name just a few, such applications include study of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the distribution of the dark matter, medicine, navigation, fire alarm, security systems and environmental monitoring. The paper discusses the possibility of using a receiver based on the hot-electron effect in superconducting films as an imaging system. We present the results of the noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) measurements performed with a hot-electron bolometer mixer made from a thin superconducting film. The receiver with a noise temperature of ~ 3800 K at a local oscillator frequency of 300 GHz a bandwidth of 500 MHz and an integration time of 1 s has offered an NETD of 0.5 K. We have also developed a technique that enabled us to reduce the contribution of the mixer gain fluctuations to the overall system instability. As of this writing, the above value of the NETD is the lowest value offered for this type of receiver, which indicates the possibility to use such receivers in real-time imaging systems. The technique offered in the paper for achieving the limiting value of the NETD offers an alternative to the phase-locking scheme.
Представены результаты измерения флуктуационной чувствительности (NETD – noise equivalent temperature difference) болометрического смесителя на эффекте разогрева электронного газа в тонких сверхпроводящих пленках. Получено предельное значение NETD, равное 0,5 К, при шумовой температуре приемника 3800 К, ширине полосы преобразования 500 МГц, постоянной времени 1 с и частоте гетеродина 300 ГГц. Разработана методика достижения предельной флуктуационной чувствительности, позволяющая избежать влияния нестабильности коэффициента преобразования смесителя.

Abstract: We report our studies of the effect of microwave radiation, with a frequency much lower than that corresponding to the energy gap of the superconductor, on the performance of the NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixer incorporated into a THz heterodyne receiver. It is shown that exposing the HEB mixer to microwave radiation does not result in a significant rise of the receiver noise temperature and degradation of the mixer conversion gain so long as the level of microwave power is small compared to the local oscillator drive. Hence the injection of a small, but controlled amount of microwave radiation enables active compensation of local oscillator power and coupling fluctuations which can significantly degrade the stability of HEB mixer receivers.

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.