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Hübers H-W, Schubert J, Krabbe A, Birk M, Wagner G, Semenov A, et al. Parylene anti-reflection coating of a quasi-optical hot-electron-bolometric mixer at terahertz frequencies. Infrared Physics & Technology. 2001;42(1):41–7.
Abstract: Parylene C was investigated as anti-reflection coating for silicon at terahertz frequencies. Measurements with a Fourier-transform spectrometer show that the transmittance of pure silicon can be improved by about 30% when applying a layer of Parylene C with a quarter wavelength optical thickness. The 10% bandwidth of this coating extends from 1.5 to 3 THz for a center frequency of 2.3–2.5 THz, where the transmittance is constant. Heterodyne measurements demonstrate that the noise temperature of a hot-electron-bolometric mixer can be reduced significantly by coating the silicon lens of the hybrid antenna with a quarter wavelength Parylene C layer. Compared to the same mixer with an uncoated lens the improvement is about 30% at a frequency of 2.5 THz.
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Kitaygorsky J, Zhang J, Verevkin A, Sergeev A, Korneev A, Matvienko V, et al. Origin of dark counts in nanostructured NbN single-photon detectors. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2005;15(2):545–8.
Abstract: We present our study of dark counts in ultrathin (3.5 to 10 nm thick), narrow (120 to 170 nm wide) NbN superconducting stripes of different lengths. In experiments, where the stripe was completely isolated from the outside world and kept at temperature below the critical temperature Tc, we detected subnanosecond electrical pulses associated with the spontaneous appearance of the temporal resistive state. The resistive state manifested itself as generation of phase-slip centers (PSCs) in our two-dimensional superconducting stripes. Our analysis shows that not far from Tc, PSCs have a thermally activated nature. At lowest temperatures, far below Tc, they are created by quantum fluctuations.
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Tret’yakov IV, Ryabchun SA, Kaurova NS, Larionov PA, Lobastova AA, Voronov BM, et al. Optimum absorbed heterodyne power for superconducting NbN hot-electron bolometer mixer. Tech Phys Lett. 2010;36(12):1103–5.
Abstract: Absorbed heterodyne power has been measured in a low-noise broadband hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixer for the terahertz range, operating on the effect of electron heating in the resistive state of an ultrathin superconducting NbN film. It is established that the optimum absorbed heterodyne power for the HEB mixer operating at 2.5 THz is about 100 nW.
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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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Gerecht E, Musante CF, Wang Z, Yngvesson KS, Mueller ER, Waldman J, et al. Optimization of hot eleciron bolometer mixing efficiency in NbN at 119 micrometer wavelength. In: Proc. 7th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol.; 1996. p. 584–600.
Abstract: We describe an investigation of a NbN HEB mixer for 2.5 THz. An intrinsic conversion loss of 23 dB has been measured with a two-laser measurement technique. The conversion loss was limited by the LO power available and is expected to decrease to 10 dB or less when sufficient LO power is available. For this initial experiment we used a prototype device which is directly coupled to the laser beams. We present results for a back-short technique that improves the optical coupling to the device and describe our progress for an antenna-coupled device with a smaller dimension. Based on our measured data for conversion loss and device output noise level, we predict that NbN HEB mixers will be capable of achieving DSB receiver noise temperatures of ten times the quantum noise limit in the THz range.
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