Pentin, I., Finkel, M., Maslennikov, S., Vakhtomin, Y., Smirnov, K., Kaurova, N., et al. (2017). Superconducting hot-electron-bolometer mixers for the mid-IR. Rus. J. Radio Electron., (10), http://jre.cplire.ru/jre/oct17/9/text.pdf.
Abstract: The work presents the result of development of the NbN superconducting hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) mixer. The sensitive element of the mixer is directly coupled to mid-IR radiation, and doesn’t have planar metallic antenna. Investigations of noise characteristics of NbN HEB mixer were performed at the frequency 28.4 THz (λ = 10.6 µm) by using gas-discharge CW CO2-laser without consideration of optical and electrical losses in the heterodyne receiver. The noise temperature of NbN HEB mixer with the size of the sensitive element 10 µm × 10 µm was 2320 K (~ 1.5hν/kB) at the heterodyne frequency of 28.4 THz. The noise temperature was determined by measuring the Y-factor taking into account the term which describes fluctuations of zero-point oscillations in accordance with the fluctuation-dissipation theorem of Calle-Welton. Isothermal method was used to estimate the absorbed heterodyne radiation power which was 9 µW at the optimal operating point for the minimum noise temperature of NbN HEB mixer.
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Krause, S., Mityashkin, V., Antipov, S., Gol'tsman, G., Meledin, D., Desmaris, V., et al. (2016). Study of IF bandwidth of NbN hot electron bolometers on GaN buffer layer using a direct measurement method. In Proc. 27th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 30–32).
Abstract: In this paper, we present a reliable measurement method to study the influence of the GaN buffer layer on phonon-escape time in comparison with commonly used Si substrates and, in consequence, on the IF bandwidth of HEBs. One of the key aspects is to operate the HEB mixer at elevated bath temperatures close to the critical temperature of the NbN ultra-thin film, where contributions from electron-phonon processes and self-heating effects are relatively small, therefore IF roll-off will be governed by the phonon-escape.Two independent experiments were performed at GARD and MSPU on a similar experimental setup at frequencies of approximately 180 and 140 GHz, respectively, and have shown reproducible and consistent results. The entire IF chain was characterized by S-parameter measurements. We compared the measurement results of epitaxial NbN grown onto GaN buffer-layer with Tc of 12.5 K (4.5nm) with high quality polycrystalline NbN films on Si substrate with Tc of 10.5K (5nm) and observed a strong indication of an enhancement of phonon escape to the substrate by a factor of two for the NbN/GaN material combination.
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Trifonov, A., Tong, C. - Y. E., Lobanov, Y., Kaurova, N., Blundell, R., & Goltsman, G. (2016). Gap frequency and photon absorption in a hot electron bolometer. In Proc. 27th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (121).
Abstract: The superconducting energy gap is a crucial parameter of a superconductor when used in mixing applications. In the case of the SIS mixer, the mixing process is efficient for frequencies below the energy gap, whereas, in the case of the HEB mixer, the mixing process is most efficient at frequencies above the gap, where photon absorption takes place more readily. We have investigated the photon absorption phenomenon around the gap frequency of HEB mixers based on NbN films deposited on silicon membranes. Apart from studying the pumped I-V curves of HEB devices, we have also probed them with microwave radiation, as previously described [1]. At frequencies far below the gap frequency, the pumped I-V curves show abrupt switching between the superconducting and resistive states. For the NbN HEB mixers we tested, which have critical temperatures of ~9 K, this is true for frequencies below about 400 GHz. As the pump frequency is increased beyond 400 GHz, the resistive state extends towards zero bias and at some point a small region of negative differential resistance appears close to zero bias. In this region, the microwave probe reveals that the device impedance is changing randomly with time. As the pump frequency is further increased, this random impedance change develops into relaxation oscillations, which can be observed by the demodulation of the reflected microwave probe. Initially, these oscillations take the form of several frequencies grouped together under an envelope. As we approach the gap frequency, the multiple frequency relaxation oscillations coalesce into a single frequency of a few MHz. The resultant square-wave nature of the oscillation is a clear indication that the device is in a bi-stable state, switching between the superconducting and normal state. Above the gap frequency, it is possible to obtain a pumped I-V curve with no negative differential resistance above a threshold pumping level. Below this pumping level, the device demonstrates bi-stability, and regular relaxation oscillation at a few MHz is observed as a function of pump power. The threshold pumping level is clearly related to the amount of power absorbed by the device and its phonon cooling. From the above experiment, we can derive the gap frequency of the NbN film, which is 585 GHz for our 6 μm thin silicon membrane-based device. We also confirm that the HEB mixer is not an efficient photon absorber for radiation below the gap frequency. 1. A. Trifonov et al., “Probing the stability of HEB mixers with microwave injection”, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., vol. 25, no. 3, June 2015.
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Seliverstov, S. V., Rusova, A. A., Kaurova, N. S., Voronov, B. M., & Goltsman, G. N. (2016). Attojoule energy resolution of direct detector based on hot electron bolometer. In J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. (Vol. 741, 012165 (1 to 5)). IOP Publishing.
Abstract: We characterize superconducting antenna-coupled NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) for direct detection of THz radiation operating at a temperature of 9.0 K. At signal frequency of 2.5 THz, the measured value of the optical noise equivalent power is 2.0×10-13 W-Hz-0.5. The estimated value of the energy resolution is about 1.5 aJ. This value was confirmed in the experiment with pulsed 1.55-μm laser employed as a radiation source. The directly measured detector energy resolution is 2 aJ. The obtained risetime of pulses from the detector is 130 ps. This value was determined by the properties of the RF line. These characteristics make our detector a device-of-choice for a number of practical applications associated with detection of short THz pulses.
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Trifonov, A., Tong, C. - Y. E., Blundell, R., Ryabchun, S., & Gol'tsman, G. (2015). Probing the stability of HEB mixers with microwave injection. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 25(3), 2300404 (1 to 4).
Abstract: Using a microwave probe as a tool, we have performed experiments aimed at understanding the origin of the output-power fluctuations in hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) mixers. We use a probe frequency of 1.5 GHz. The microwave probe picks up impedance changes of the HEB, which are examined upon demodulation of the reflected wave outside the cryostat. This study shows that the HEB mixer operates in two different regimes under a terahertz pump. At a low pumping level, strong pulse modulation is observed, as the device switches between the superconducting state and the normal state at a rate of a few megahertz. When pumped much harder, to approximate the low-noise mixer operating point, residual modulation can still be observed, showing that the HEB mixer is intrinsically unstable even in the resistive state. Based on these observations, we introduced a low-frequency termination to the HEB mixer. By terminating the device in a 50-Ω resistor in the megahertz frequency range, we have been able to improve the output-power Allan time of our HEB receiver by a factor of four to about 10 s for a detection bandwidth of 15 MHz, with a corresponding gain fluctuation of about 0.035%.
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