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Wild W, Kardashev NS, Likhachev SF, Babakin NG, Arkhipov VY, Vinogradov IS, et al. Millimetron—a large Russian-European submillimeter space observatory. Exp Astron. 2009;23(1):221–44.
Abstract: Millimetron is a Russian-led 12 m diameter submillimeter and far-infrared space observatory which is included in the Space Plan of the Russian Federation for launch around 2017. With its large collecting area and state-of-the-art receivers, it will enable unique science and allow at least one order of magnitude improvement with respect to the Herschel Space Observatory. Millimetron will be operated in two basic observing modes: as a single-dish observatory, and as an element of a ground-space very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) system. As single-dish, angular resolutions on the order of 3 to 12 arc sec will be achieved and spectral resolutions of up to a million employing heterodyne techniques. As VLBI antenna, the chosen elliptical orbit will provide extremely large VLBI baselines (beyond 300,000 km) resulting in micro-arc second angular resolution.
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Gao JR, Hajenius M, Tichelaar FD, Klapwijk TM, Voronov B, Grishin E, et al. Monocrystalline NbN nanofilms on a 3C-SiC∕Si substrate. Appl Phys Lett. 2007;91(6):062504 (1 to 3).
Abstract: The authors have realized NbN (100) nanofilms on a 3C-SiC (100)/Si(100) substrate by dc reactive magnetron sputtering at 800°C. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) is used to characterize the films, showing a monocrystalline structure and confirming epitaxial growth on the 3C-SiC layer. A film ranging in thickness from 3.4to4.1nm shows a superconducting transition temperature of 11.8K, which is the highest reported for NbN films of comparable thickness. The NbN nano-films on 3C-SiC offer a promising alternative to improve terahertz detectors. For comparison, NbN nanofilms grown directly on Si substrates are also studied by HRTEM.
The authors acknowledge S. V. Svetchnikov at National Centre for HRTEM at Delft, who prepared the specimens for HRTEM inspections. This work was supported by the EU through RadioNet and INTAS.
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Gao JR, Hajenius M, Baselmans JJA, Klapwijk TM, de Korte PAJ, Voronov B, et al. NbN hot electron bolometer mixers with superior performance for space applications. In: Armandillo E, Leone B, editors. Proc. Int. workshop on low temp. electronics. Noordwijk; 2004. p. 11–7.
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Baselmans JJA, Hajenius M, Gao JR, Baryshev A, Kooi J, Klapwijk TM, et al. NbN hot electron bolometer mixers: sensitivity, LO power, direct detection and stability. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2005;15(2):484–9.
Abstract: We demonstrate that the performance of NbN lattice cooled hot electron bolometer mixers depends strongly on the interface quality between the bolometer and the contact structure. Both the receiver noise temperature and the gain bandwidth can be improved by a factor of 2 by cleaning the interface and adding an additional superconducting interlayer to the contact pad. Using this we obtain a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 950 K at 2.5 THz and 4.3 K, using a 0.4/spl times/4 /spl mu/m HEB mixer with a spiral antenna. At the same bias point, we obtain an IF gain bandwidth of 6 GHz. To comply with current demands on THz mixers for use in space based receivers we reduce the device size to 0.15/spl times/1 /spl mu/m and use a twin slot antenna. We report measurements of the noise temperature, LO power requirement, stability and the direct detection effect, using a mixer with a 1.6 THz twin slot antenna and a 1.462 THz solid state LO source with calibrated output power.
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Baselmans JJA, Hajenius M, Gao JR, Klapwijk TM, de Korte PAJ, Voronov B, et al. Noise performance of NbN hot electron bolometer mixers at 2.5 THz and its dependence on the contact resistance. In: Proc. 14th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 2003. p. 11–9.
Abstract: NbN hot electron bolometer mixers (HEBM) are at this moment the best heterodyne receivers 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. The result is a low transparency interface between the bolometer itself and the contact/antenna structure. In this paper we report a detailed experimental study on a novel idea to increase the transparency of this interface. This leads to a record sensitivity and more reproducible performance. We compare identical bolometers, coupled with a spiral antenna, with different NbN bolometer-contact pad interfaces. We find that cleaning the NbN interface alone results in an increase in the noise temperature. However, cleaning the NbN interface and adding a thin additional superconductor prior to the gold contact deposition improves the noise temperature of the HEBm with more than a factor of 2. A device with a contact pad on top of an in-situ cleaned NbN film consisting of 10 nm of NbTiN and 40 nm of gold has a DSB noise temperature of 1050 K at 2.5 THz.
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Hajenius M, Yang ZQ, Gao JR, Baselmans JJA, Klapwijk TM, Voronov B, et al. Optimized sensitivity of NbN hot electron bolometer mixers by annealing. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2007;17(2):399–402.
Abstract: We report that the heterodyne sensitivity of superconducting hot-electron bolometers (HEBs) increases by 25-30% after annealing at 85degC in high vacuum. The devices studied are twin-slot antenna coupled mixers with a small area NbN bridge of 1 mum times 0.15 mum, above which there is a SiO 2 passivation layer. The mixer noise temperature, gain, and resistance versus temperature curve of a HEB before and after annealing are compared and analysed. We show that the annealing reduces the intrinsic noise of the mixer by 37% and makes the superconducting transition of the bridge and the contacts sharper. We argue that the reduction ofthe noise is mainly due to the improvement of the transparency of the contact/film interface. The lowest receiver noise temperature of 700 K is measured at a local oscillator frequency of 1.63 THz and at a bath temperature of 4.2 K.
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Zhang W, Khosropanah P, Gao JR, Kollberg EL, Yngvesson KS, Bansal T, et al. Quantum noise in a terahertz hot electron bolometer mixer. Appl Phys Lett. 2010;96(11):111113–(1.
Abstract: We have measured the noise temperature of a single, sensitive superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer in a frequency range from 1.6 to 5.3 THz, using a setup with all the key components in vacuum. By analyzing the measured receiver noise temperature using a quantum noise (QN) model for HEB mixers, we confirm the effect of QN. The QN is found to be responsible for about half of the receiver noise at the highest frequency in our measurements. The beta-factor (the quantum efficiency of the HEB) obtained experimentally agrees reasonably well with the calculated value.
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Yang ZQ, Hajenius M, Baselmans JJA, Gao JR, Voronov B, Gol’tsman GN. Reduced noise in NbN hot-electron bolometer mixers by annealing. Supercond Sci Technol. 2006;19(4):L (9 to 12).
Abstract: We find that the sensitivity of heterodyne receivers based on superconducting hot-electron bolometers (HEBs) increases by 25–30% after annealing at 85 °C in vacuum. The devices studied are twin-slot antenna coupled mixers with a small NbN bridge of 1 × 0.15 µm2. We show that annealing changes the device properties as reflected in sharper resistive transitions of the complete device, apparently reducing the device-related noise. The lowest receiver noise temperature of 700 K is measured at a local oscillator frequency of 1.63 THz and a bath temperature of 4.3 K.
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Floet DW, Baselmans JJA, Klapwijk TM, Gao JR. Resistive transition of niobium superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixers. Appl Phys Lett. 1998;73(19):2826.
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Zhang W, Miao W, Yao QJ, Lin ZH, Shi SC, Gao JR, et al. Spectral response and noise temperature of a 2.5 THz spiral antenna coupled NbN HEB mixer. Phys Procedia. 2012;36:334–7.
Abstract: We report on a 2.5 THz spiral antenna coupled NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers, fabricated with in-situ process. The receiver noise temperature with lowest value of 1180 K is in good agreement with calculated quantum efficiency factor as a function of bias voltage. In addition, the measured spectral response of the spiral antenna coupled NbN HEB mixer shows broad frequency coverage of 0.8-3 THz, and corrected response for optical losses, FTS, and coupling efficiency between antenna and bolometer falls with frequency due to diffraction-limited beam of lens/antenna combination.
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