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Khosropanah P, Gao JR, Laauwen WM, Hajenius M, Klapwijk TM. Low noise NbN hot electron bolometer mixer at 4.3 THz. Appl Phys Lett. 2007;91:221111 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We have studied the sensitivity of a superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer mixer integrated with a spiral antenna at 4.3 THz. Using hot/cold blackbody loads and a beam splitter all in vacuum, we measured a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 1300 K at the optimum local oscillator (LO) power of 330 nW, which is about 12 times the quantum noise (hnu/2kB). Our result indicates that there is no sign of degradation of the mixing process at the superterahertz frequencies. Moreover, a measurement method is introduced which allows us for an accurate determination of the sensitivity despite LO power fluctuations.
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Semenov AD, Hübers H-W, Schubert J, Gol'tsman GN, Elantiev AI, Voronov BM, et al. Design and performance of the lattice-cooled hot-electron terahertz mixer. J Appl Phys. 2000;88(11):6758–67.
Abstract: We present the measurements and the theoreticalmodel of the frequency-dependent noise temperature of a superconductor lattice-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixer in the terahertz frequency range. The increase of the noise temperature with frequency is a cumulative effect of the nonuniform distribution of the high-frequency current in the bolometer and the charge imbalance, which occurs at the edges of the normal domain and at the contacts with normal metal. We show that under optimal operation the fluctuation sensitivity of the mixer is determined by thermodynamic fluctuations of the noise power, whereas at small biases there appears additional noise, which is probably due to the flux flow. We propose the prescription of how to minimize the influence of the current distribution on the mixer performance.
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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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Gershenson ME, Gong D, Sato T, Karasik BS, Sergeev AV. Millisecond electron-phonon relaxation in ultrathin disordered metal films at millikelvin temperatures. Appl. Phys. Lett.. 2001;79:2049–51.
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Cherednichenko S, Kroug M, Merkel H, Kollberg E, Loudkov D, Smirnov K, et al. Local oscillator power requirement and saturation effects in NbN HEB mixers. In: Jet Propulsion Laboratory CIit.u.t.e of T, editor. Proc. 12th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. San Diego, CA, USA; 2001. p. 273–85.
Abstract: The local oscillator power required for NbN hot-electron bolometric mixers (P LO ) was investigated with respect to mixer size, critical temperature and ambient temperature. P LO can be decreased by a factor of 10 as the mixer size decreases from 4×0.4 µm 2 to 0.6×0.13 µm 2 . For the smallest volume mixer the optimal local oscillator power was found to be 15 nW. We found that for such mixer no signal compression was observed up to an input signal of 2 nW which corresponds to an equivalent input load of 20,000 K. For a constant mixer volume, reduction of T c can decrease optimal local oscillator power at least by a factor of 2 without a deterioration of the receiver noise temperature. Bath temperature was found to have minor effect on the receiver characteristics.
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