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Lobanov YV, Tong C-YE, Hedden AS, Blundell R, Voronov BM, Gol'tsman GN. Direct measurement of the gain and noise bandwidths of HEB mixers. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2011;21(3):645–8.
Abstract: The intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth of a hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer is an important parameter of the mixer, in that it helps to determine its suitability for a given application. With the availability of wideband low noise amplifiers, it is simple to measure the performance of an HEB mixer over a wide range of IF at a fixed LO frequency using the standard Y-factor method. This in-situ method allows us to measure both the gain and noise bandwidths simultaneously. We have also measured mixer output impedance with a vector network analyser. Intrinsic time constant has been extracted from the impedance data and compared to the mixer's bandwidths determined from receiver Y-factor measurement.
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Semenov AD, Gousev YP, Renk KF, Voronov BM, Gol'tsman GN, Gershenzon EM, et al. Noise characteristics of a NbN hot-electron mixer at 2.5 THz. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 1997;7(2):3572–5.
Abstract: The noise temperature of a NbN phonon cooled hot-electron mixer has been measured at a frequency of 2.5 THz for various operating conditions. We obtained for optimal operation a double sideband mixer noise temperature of /spl ap/14000 K and a system conversion loss of /spl ap/23 dB at intermediate frequencies up to 1 GHz. The dependences of the mixer noise temperature on the bias voltage, local oscillator power, and intermediate frequency were consistent with the phenomenological description based on the effective temperature approximation.
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Gol’tsman GN, Gershenzon EM. Phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixer: overview of recent results. Appl Supercond. 1999;6(10-12):649–55.
Abstract: The 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 mixer has crossed the level of 1 K·GHz−1 at 430 GHz (410 K) and 600–650 GHz (480 K) and is close to this level at 820 GHz (1100 K) and 900 GHz (980 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 are about 100 nW for mixers made by e-beam lithography. The studies in terahertz receivers based on HEB superconducting mixers now present a dynamic, rapidly developing field.
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Yagoubov P, Kroug M, Merkel H, Kollberg E, Schubert J, Hubers H-W, et al. Heterodyne measurements of a NbN superconducting hot electron mixer at terahertz frequencies. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 1999;9(2):3757–60.
Abstract: The performance of a NbN based phonon-cooled Hot Electron Bolometric (HEB) quasioptical mixer is investigated in the 0.65-3.12 THz frequency range. The device is made from a 3 nm thick NbN film on high resistivity Si and integrated with a planar spiral antenna on the same substrate. The in-plane dimensions of the bolometer strip are 0.2/spl times/2 /spl mu/m. The best results of the DSB noise temperature at 1.5 GHz IF frequency obtained with one device are: 1300 K at 650 GHz, 4700 K at 2.5 THz and 10000 K at 3.12 THz. The measurements were performed at 4.5 K ambient temperature. The amount of local oscillator (LO) power absorbed in the bolometer is about 100 nW. The mixer is linear to within 1 dB compression up to the signal level 10 dB below that of the LO. The intrinsic single sideband conversion gain measured at 650 GHz is -9 dB, the total conversion gain is -14 dB.
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Lindgren M, Currie M, Zeng W-S, Sobolewski R, Cherednichenko S, Voronov B, et al. Picosecond response of a superconducting hot-electron NbN photodetector. Appl Supercond. 1998;6(7-9):423–8.
Abstract: The ps optical response of ultrathin NbN photodetectors has been studied by electro-optic sampling. The detectors were fabricated by patterning ultrathin (3.5 nm thick) NbN films deposited on sapphire by reactive magnetron sputtering into either a 5×10 μm2 microbridge or 25 1 μm wide, 5 μm long strips connected in parallel. Both structures were placed at the center of a 4 mm long coplanar waveguide covered with Ti/Au. The photoresponse was studied at temperatures ranging from 2.15 K to 10 K, with the samples biased in the resistive (switched) state and illuminated with 100 fs wide laser pulses at 395 nm wavelength. At T=2.15 K, we obtained an approximately 100 ps wide transient, which corresponds to a NbN detector response time of 45 ps. The photoresponse can be attributed to the nonequilibrium electron heating effect, where the incident radiation increases the temperature of the electron subsystem, while the phonons act as the heat sink. The high-speed response of NbN devices makes them an excellent choice for an optoelectronic interface for superconducting digital circuits, as well as mixers for the terahertz regime. The multiple-strip detector showed a linear dependence on input optical power and a responsivity =3.9 V/W.
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Trifonov A, Tong C-YE, Lobanov Y, Kaurova N, Blundell R, Goltsman G. Photon absorption near the gap frequency in a hot electron bolometer. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2017;27(4):1–4.
Abstract: The superconducting energy gap is a fundamental characteristic of a superconducting film, which, together with the applied pump power and the biasing setup, defines the instantaneous resistive state of the Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer at any given bias point on the I-V curve. In this paper we report on a series of experiments, in which we subjected the HEB to radiation over a wide frequency range along with parallel microwave injection. We have observed three distinct regimes of operation of the HEB, depending on whether the radiation is above the gap frequency, far below it or close to it. These regimes are driven by the different patterns of photon absorption. The experiments have allowed us to derive the approximate gap frequency of the device under test as about 585 GHz. Microwave injection was used to probe the HEB impedance. Spontaneous switching between the superconducting (low resistive) state and a quasi-normal (high resistive) state was observed. The switching pattern depends on the particular regime of HEB operation and can assume a random pattern at pump frequencies below the gap to a regular relaxation oscillation running at a few MHz when pumped above the gap.
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Zorin M, Milostnaya I, Gol'tsman GN, Gershenzon EM. Fast NbN superconducting switch controlled by optical radiation. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 1997;7(2):3734–7.
Abstract: The switching time and the optical control power of the NbN superconducting switch have been measured. The device is based on the ultrathin film 5-8 nm thick patterned as a structure of several narrow parallel strips (/spl sim/1 /spl mu/m wide) connected to wide current leads. The current-voltage characteristic of the switch at temperature 4.2 K demonstrated a hysteresis due to DC current self-heating. We studied the superconducting-to-resistive state transition induced by both optical and bias-current excitations. The optical pulse duration was /spl sim/20 ps and the rise time of the current step was determined to be less than 50 ps. The optical pulse was delivered to the switch by the semiconductor laser through an optical fiber. We found that the measured switching time is less than the duration of the optical excitation. The threshold optical power density does not exceed 3/spl middot/10/sup 3/ W/cm/sup 2/. The proposed device can be used in the fiber input of LTS rapid single flux quantum circuits.
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Semenov AD, Goghidze IG, Gol’tsman GN, Sergeev AV, Aksaev EE, Gershenzon EM. Non-equilibrium quasiparticle response to radiation and bolometric effect in YBaCuO films. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 1993;3(1):2132–5.
Abstract: The voltage photoresponse of structured current biased YBCO films on different substrates to 20-ps laser pulses of 0.63- mu m and 1.54- mu m wavelengths and to continuously modulated radiation of 2-mm wavelength is measured to temperatures around Tc. Fast picosecond decay of the response to pulsed radiation is followed by slow exponential relaxation with a nanosecond characteristic time depending on the substrate material and film dimensions. The slow component does not depend on wavelength and is attributed to the bolometric effect, while the magnitude of the fast component associated with nonequilibrium response rises with wavelength. More than an order-of-magnitude increase of the nonequilibrium response is seen from near-infrared to millimeter-wave range. This dependence plausibly reflects the low efficiency of multiplication of photoexcited electrons in YBaCuO compared to conventional superconductors.
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Kawakami A, Saito S, Hyodo M. Fabrication of nano-antennas for superconducting Infrared detectors. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.. 2011;21(3):632–5.
Abstract: To improve the response performance of superconducting infrared detectors, we have developed a fabrication process for nano-antennas. A nano-antenna consists of a dipole antenna, and a superconducting thin film strip placed in the antenna's center. By measuring the transition temperature of the superconducting strips, we confirmed that their superconductivity maintained a good condition after the nano-antenna fabrication process. We also evaluated nano-antenna characteristics using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The evaluated antenna length and width were respectively set at around 2400 nm and 400 nm, and the antennas were placed at intervals of several micrometers around the area of 1 mm2 . In an evaluation of spectral transmission characteristics, clear absorption caused by antenna effects was observed at around 1400 cm-1. High polarization dependencies were also observed.
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Lobanov Y, Shcherbatenko M, Semenov A, Kovalyuk V, Kahl O, Ferrari S, et al. Superconducting nanowire single photon detector for coherent detection of weak signals. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2017;27(4):1–5.
Abstract: Traditional photon detectors are operated in the direct detection mode, counting incident photons with a known quantum efficiency. Here, we have investigated a superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) operated as a photon counting mixer at telecommunication wavelength around 1.5 μm. This regime of operation combines excellent sensitivity of a photon counting detector with excellent spectral resolution given by the heterodyne technique. Advantageously, we have found that low local oscillator (LO) power of the order of hundreds of femtowatts to a few picowatts is sufficient for clear observation of the incident test signal with the sensitivity approaching the quantum limit. With further optimization, the required LO power could be significantly reduced, which is promising for many practical applications, such as the development of receiver matrices or recording ultralow signals at a level of less-than-one-photon per second. In addition to a traditional NbN-based SNSPD operated with normal incidence coupling, we also use detectors with a travelling wave geometry, where a NbN nanowire is placed on the top of a Si 3 N 4 nanophotonic waveguide. This approach is fully scalable and a large number of devices could be integrated on a single chip.
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