Tong CE, Blundell R, Papa DC, Smith M, Kawamura J, Gol'tsman G, et al. An all solid-state superconducting heterodyne receiver at terahertz frequencies. IEEE Microw Guid Wave Lett. 1999;9(9):366–8.
Abstract: A superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixer-receiver operating from 1 to 1.26 THz has been developed. This heterodyne receiver employs two solid-state local oscillators each consisting of a Gunn oscillator followed by two stages of varactor frequency multiplication. The measured receiver noise temperature is 1350 K at 1.035 THz and 2700 K at 1.26 THz. This receiver demonstrates that tunable solid-state local oscillators, supplying only a few micro-watts of output power, can be used in terahertz receiver applications.
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Kawamura JH, Tong C-YE, Blundell R, Cosmo Papa D, Hunter TR, Gol'tsman G, et al. An 800 GHz NbN phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixer receiver. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 1999;9(2):3753–6.
Abstract: We describe a heterodyne receiver developed for astronomical applications to operate in the 350 /spl mu/m atmospheric window. The waveguide receiver employs a superconductive NbN phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixer. The double sideband receiver noise temperature closely follows 1 kGHz/sup -1/ across 780-870 GHz, with the intermediate frequency centered at 1.4 GHz. The conversion loss is about 15 dB. The receiver was installed for operation at the University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy Submillimeter Telescope facility. The instrument was successfully used to conduct test observations of a number of celestial sources in a number of astronomically important spectral lines.
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Kroug M, Cherednichenko S, Merkel H, Kollberg E, Voronov B, Gol'tsman G, et al. NbN hot electron bolometric mixers for terahertz receivers. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2001;11(1):962–5.
Abstract: Sensitivity and gain bandwidth measurements of phonon-cooled NbN superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixers are presented. The best receiver noise temperatures are: 700 K at 1.6 THz and 1100 K at 2.5 THz. Parylene as an antireflection coating on silicon has been investigated and used in the optics of the receiver. The dependence of the mixer gain bandwidth (GBW) on the bias voltage has been measured. Starting from low bias voltages, close to operating conditions yielding the lowest noise temperature, the GBW increases towards higher bias voltages, up to three times the initial value. The highest measured GBW is 9 GHz within the same bias range the noise temperature increases by a factor of two.
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Meledin D, Tong CY-E, Blundell R, Kaurova N, Smirnov K, Voronov B, et al. Study of the IF bandwidth of NbN HEB mixers based on crystalline quartz substrate with an MgO buffer layer. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2003;13(2):164–7.
Abstract: In this paper, we present the results of IF bandwidth measurements on 3-4 nm thick NbN hot electron bolometer waveguide mixers, which have been fabricated on a 200-nm thick MgO buffer layer deposited on a crystalline quartz substrate. The 3-dB IF bandwidth, measured at an LO frequency of 0.81 THz, is 3.7 GHz at the optimal bias point for low noise receiver operation. We have also made measurements of the IF dynamic impedance, which allow us to evaluate the intrinsic electron temperature relaxation time and self-heating parameters at different bias conditions.
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Gol'tsman G, Minaeva O, Korneev A, Tarkhov M, Rubtsova I, Divochiy A, et al. Middle-infrared to visible-light ultrafast superconducting single-photon detectors. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2007;17(2):246–51.
Abstract: We present an overview of the state-of-the-art of NbN superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs). Our devices exhibit quantum efficiency (QE) of up to 30% in near-infrared wavelength and 0.4% at 5 mum, with a dark-count rate that can be as low as 10 -4 s -1 . The SSPD structures integrated with lambda/4 microcavities achieve a QE of 60% at telecommunication, 1550-nm wavelength. We have also developed a new generation of SSPDs that possess the QE of large-active-area devices, but, simultaneously, are characterized by low kinetic inductance that allows achieving short response times and the GHz-counting rate with picosecond timing jitter. The improvements presented in the SSPD development, such as fiber-coupled SSPDs, make our detectors most attractive for high-speed quantum communications and quantum computing.
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