Gol'tsman G, Maslennikov S, Finkel M, Antipov S, Kaurova N, Grishina E, et al. Nanostructured ultrathin NbN film as a terahertz hot-electron bolometer mixer. In: Proc. MRS. Vol 935.; 2006. 210 (1 to 6).
Abstract: Planar spiral antenna coupled and directly lens coupled NbN HEB mixer structures are studied. An additional MgO buffer layer between the superconducting film and Si substrate is introduced. The buffer layer enables us to increase the gain bandwidth of a HEB mixer due to better acoustic transparency. The gain bandwidth is widened as NbN film thickness decreases and amounts to 5.2 GHz. The noise temperature of antenna coupled mixer is 1300 and 3100 K at 2.5 and 3.8 THz respectively. The structure and composition of NbN films is investigated by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy methods. Noise performance degradation at LO frequencies more than 3 THz is due to the use of a planar antenna and signal loss in contacts between the antenna and the sensitive NbN bridge. The mixer is reconfigured for operation at higher frequencies in a manner that receiver’s noise temperature is only 2300 K (3 times of quantum limit) at LO frequency of 30 THz.
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Antipov S, Trifonov A, Krause S, Meledin D, Kaurova N, Rudzinski M, et al. Improved bandwidth of a 2 THz hot-electron bolometer heterodyne mixer fabricated on sapphire with a GaN buffer layer. Supercond Sci Technol. 2019;32(7):075003.
Abstract: We report on the signal-to-noise and gain bandwidth of a niobium nitride (NbN) hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixer at 2 THz fabricated on a sapphire substrate with a GaN buffer layer. Two mixers with different DC properties and geometrical dimensions were studied and they demonstrated very close bandwidth performance. The signal-to-noise bandwidth is increased to 8 GHz in comparison to the previous results, obtained without a buffer-layer. The data were taken in a quasi-optical system with the use of the signal-to-noise method, which is close to the signal levels used in actual astrophysical observations. We find an increase of the gain bandwidth to 5 GHz. The results indicate that prior results obtained on a substrate of crystalline GaN can also be obtained on a conventional sapphire substrate with a few micron MOCVD-deposited GaN buffer-layer.
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Cao A, Jiang L, Chen SH, Antipov SV, Shi SC. IF gain bandwidth of a quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB mixer. In: Proc. International conference on microwave and millimeter wave technology. Builin; 2007. p. 1–3.
Abstract: In this paper, the intermediate frequency (IF) gain bandwidth of a quasi-optical NbN superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixer is investigated at 500 GHz with an IF system incorporating with a frequency down-converting scheme which is able to sweep the IF signal in a frequency range of 0.3-4 GHz. The IF gain bandwidth of the device is measured to be 1.5 GHz when it is biased at a voltage of the minimum noise temperature, and becomes larger when the bias voltage increases.
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Antipov S, Trifonov A, Krause S, Meledin D, Desmaris V, Belitsky V, et al. Gain bandwidth of NbN HEB mixers on GaN buffer layer operating at 2 THz local oscillator frequency. In: Proc. 28th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 2017. p. 147–8.
Abstract: In this paper, we present IF bandwidth measurement results of NbN HEB mixers, which are employing NbN thin films grown on a GaN buffer-layer. The HEB mixers were operated in the heterodyne regime at a bath temperature of approximately 4.5 K and with a local oscillator operating at a frequency of 2 THz. A quantum cascade laser served as the local oscillator and a reference synthesizer based on a BWO generator (130-160 GHz) and a semiconductor superlattice (SSL) frequency multiplier was used as a signal source. By changing the LO frequency it was possible to record the IF response or gain bandwidth of the HEB with a spectrum analyzer at the operation point, which yielded lowest noise temperature. The gain bandwidth that was recorded in the heterodyne regime at 2 THz amounts to approximately 5 GHz and coincides well with a measurement that has been performed at elevated bath temperatures and lower LO frequency of 140 GHz. These findings strongly support that by using a GaN buffer-layer the phonon escape time of NbN HEBs can be significantly lower as compared to e.g. Si substrate, thus, providing higher gain bandwidth.
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Nikoghosyan AS, Martirosyan RM, Hakhoumian AA, Makaryan AH, Tadevosyan VR, Goltsman GN, et al. Effect of absorption on the efficiency of THz radiation generation in a nonlinear crystal placed into a waveguide. Armenian J Phys. 2018;11(4):257–62.
Abstract: The effect of THz radiation absorption on the efficiency of generation of coherent THz radiation in a nonlinear optical crystal placed into a metal rectangular waveguide is studied. The efficiency of the nonlinear conversion of optical laser radiation to the THz band is also a function of the phase-matching (PM) condition inside the nonlinear crystal. The method of partial filling of a metal waveguide with a nonlinear optical crystal is used to ensure phase matching. Phase matching was obtained by the proper choice of the thickness of the nonlinear crystal, namely the degree of partial filling of the waveguide. We have studied the THz radiation attenuation caused by the losses in both the metal walls of the waveguide and in the crystal, taking into account the dimension of the cross section of the waveguide, the degree of partial filling and its dielectric constant.
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