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Ren Y, Zhang DX, Zhou KM, Miao W, Zhang W, Shi SC, et al. 10.6 μm heterodyne receiver based on a superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixer and a quantum cascade laser. AIP Advances. 2019;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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Semenov AD, Hübers H-W, Richter H, Birk M, Krocka M, Mair U, et al. 2.5 THz heterodyne receiver with NbN hot-electron-bolometer mixer. Phys C: Supercond. 2002;372-376:448–53.
Abstract: We describe a 2.5 THz heterodyne receiver for applications in astronomy and atmospheric research. The receiver employs a superconducting NbN phonon-cooled hot-electron-bolometer mixer and an optically pumped far-infrared gas laser as local oscillator. 2200 K double sideband mixer noise temperature was measured at 2.5 THz across a 1 GHz intermediate frequency bandwidth centred at 1.5 GHz. The total conversion losses were 17 dB. The mixer response was linear at load temperatures smaller than 400 K. The receiver was tested in the laboratory environment by measuring the methanol line in emission. Observed pressure broadening confirms the true heterodyne detection regime of the mixer.
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Morozov DV, Smirnov KV, Smirnov AV, Lyakhov VA, Goltsman GN. A millimeter-submillimeter phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixer based on two-dimensional electron gas in an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure. Semicond. 2005;39(9):1082–6.
Abstract: Experimental results obtained by studying the main characteristics of a millimeter-submillimeter wave mixer based on the hot-electron effect in a two-dimensional electron gas in a AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure with a phonon-scattering cooling mechanism for charge carriers are reported. The gain bandwidth of the mixer is 4 GHz, the internal conversion losses are 13 dB, and the optimum local-oscillator power is 0.5 μW (for a mixer area of 1 μm2). It is shown that a millimeter-submillimeter-wave receiver with a noise temperature of 1900 K can be developed on the basis of a AlGaAs/GaAs mixer. This mixer also appears to be promising for use in array receiver elements.
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Goltsman G, Korneev A, Minaeva O, Rubtsova I, Chulkova G, Milostnaya I, et al. Advanced nanostructured optical NbN single-photon detector operated at 2.0 K. In: Razeghi M, Brown GJ, editors. Proc. SPIE. Vol 5732. Spie; 2005. p. 520–9.
Abstract: We present our studies on quantum efficiency (QE), dark counts, and noise equivalent power (NEP) of the latest generation of nanostructured NbN superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) operated at 2.0 K. Our SSPDs are based on 4 nm-thick NbN films, patterned by electron beam lithography as highly-uniform 100÷120-nm-wide meander-shaped stripes, covering the total area of 10x10 μm2 with the meander filling factor of 0.7. Advances in the fabrication process and low-temperature operation lead to QE as high as 30-40% for visible-light photons (0.56 μm wavelength)-the saturation value, limited by optical absorption of the NbN film. For 1.55 μm photons, QE was 20% and decreased exponentially with the wavelength reaching 0.02% at the 5-μm wavelength. Being operated at 2.0-K temperature the SSPDs revealed an exponential decrease of the dark count rate, what along with the high QE, resulted in the NEP as low as 5x10-21 W/Hz-1/2, the lowest value ever reported for near-infrared optical detectors. The SSPD counting rate was measured to be above 1 GHz with the pulse-to-pulse jitter below 20 ps. Our nanostructured NbN SSPDs operated at 2.0 K significantly outperform their semiconducting counterparts and find practical applications ranging from noninvasive testing of CMOS VLSI integrated circuits to ultrafast quantum communications and quantum cryptography.
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Lipatov A, Okunev O, Smirnov K, Chulkova G, Korneev A, Kouminov P, et al. An ultrafast NbN hot-electron single-photon detector for electronic applications. Supercond Sci Technol. 2002;15(12):1689–92.
Abstract: We present the latest generation of our superconducting single-photon detector (SPD), which can work from ultraviolet to mid-infrared optical radiation wavelengths. The detector combines a high speed of operation and low jitter with high quantum efficiency (QE) and very low dark count level. The technology enhancement allows us to produce ultrathin (3.5 nm thick) structures that demonstrate QE hundreds of times better, at 1.55 μm, than previous 10 nm thick SPDs. The best, 10 × 10 μm2, SPDs demonstrate QE up to 5% at 1.55 μm and up to 11% at 0.86 μm. The intrinsic detector QE, normalized to the film absorption coefficient, reaches 100% at bias currents above 0.9 Ic for photons with wavelengths shorter than 1.3 μm.
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Gol'tsman G, Semenov A, Smirnov K, Voronov B. Background limited quantum superconducting detector for submillimeter wavelengths. In: Proc. 12th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 2001. p. 469–75.
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Zolotov P, Divochiy A, Korneeva Y, Vakhtomin Y, Seleznev V, Smirnov K. Capability investigation of superconducting single-photon detectors, optimized for 800–1200 nm spectrum range.; 2015.
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Korneev AA, Korneeva YP, Mikhailov MY, Pershin YP, Semenov AV, Vodolazov DY, et al. Characterization of MoSi superconducting single-photon detectors in the magnetic field. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2015;25(3):2200504 (1 to 4).
Abstract: We investigate the response mechanism of nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) made of amorphous MoxSi1-x. We study the dependence of photon count and dark count rates on bias current in magnetic fields up to 113 mT at 1.7 K temperature. The observed behavior of photon counts is similar to the one recently observed in NbN SSPDs. Our results show that the detecting mechanism of relatively high-energy photons does not involve the vortex penetration from the edges of the film, and on the contrary, the detecting mechanism of low-energy photons probably involves the vortex penetration from the film edges.
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Lobanov YV, Vakhtomin YB, Pentin IV, Khabibullin RA, Shchavruk NV, Smirnov KV, et al. Characterization of the THz quantum cascade laser using fast superconducting hot electron bolometer. EPJ Web Conf. 2018;195:04004 (1 to 2).
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Moshkova MA, Divochiy AV, Morozov PV, Antipov AV, Vakhtomin YB, Smirnov KV. Characterization of topologies of superconducting photon number resolving detectors. In: Proc. 8th Int. Conf. Photonics and Information Optics.; 2019. p. 465–6.
Abstract: Comparative analysis for different topologies of superconducting single-photon detectors with ability to resolve up to 4 photons in a short pulse of IR radiation has been carry out. It was developed the detector with a system detection efficiency of ~ 85 % at λ = 1550 nm. The possibility of using such detector to restore photon statistics of a pulsed radiation source was demonstrated.
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