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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Klapwijk TM, Barends R, Gao JR, Hajenius M, Baselmans JJA. Improved superconducting hot-electron bolometer devices for the THz range. In: Proc. SPIE. Vol 5498.; 2004. p. 129–39.
Abstract: Improved and reproducible heterodyne mixing (noise temperatures of 950 K at 2.5 THz) has been realized with NbN based hot-electron superconducting devices with low contact resistances. A distributed temperature numerical model of the NbN bridge, based on a local electron and a phonon temperature, has been used to understand the physical conditions during the mixing process. We find that the mixing is predominantly due to the exponential rise of the local resistivity as a function of electron temperature.
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Kooi JW, Baselmans JJA, Baryshev A, Schieder R, Hajenius M, Gao JR, et al. Stability of heterodyne terahertz receivers. J Appl Phys. 2006;100(6):064904 (1 to 9).
Abstract: In this paper we discuss the stability of heterodyne terahertz receivers based on small volume NbN phonon cooled hot electron bolometers (HEBs). The stability of these receivers can be broken down in two parts: the intrinsic stability of the HEB mixer and the stability of the local oscillator (LO) signal injection scheme. Measurements show that the HEB mixer stability is limited by gain fluctuations with a 1∕f spectral distribution. In a 60MHz noise bandwidth this results in an Allan variance stability time of ∼0.3s. Measurement of the spectroscopic Allan variance between two intermediate frequency (IF) channels results in a much longer Allan variance stability time, i.e., 3s between a 2.5 and a 4.7GHz channel, and even longer for more closely spaced channels. This implies that the HEB mixer 1∕f noise is strongly correlated across the IF band and that the correlation gets stronger the closer the IF channels are spaced. In the second part of the paper we discuss atmospheric and mechanical system stability requirements on the LO-mixer cavity path length. We calculate the mixer output noise fluctuations as a result of small perturbations of the LO-mixer standing wave, and find very stringent mechanical and atmospheric tolerance requirements for receivers operating at terahertz frequencies.
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Kooi JW, Baselmans JJA, Hajenius M, Gao JR, Klapwijk TM, Dieleman P, et al. IF impedance and mixer gain of NbN hot electron bolometers. J. Appl. Phys.. 2007;101(4):044511.
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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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