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Author Baselmans, J. J. A.; Hajenius, M.; Gao, J.; de Korte, P.; Klapwijk, T. M.; Voronov, B.; Gol’tsman, G.
Title Doubling of sensitivity and bandwidth in phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixers Type Conference Article
Year 2004 Publication Proc. SPIE Abbreviated Journal Proc. SPIE
Volume 5498 Issue Pages 168-176
Keywords Hot electron bolometers, bandwidth, noise temperature, experimental
Abstract NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers are at this moment the best heterodyne detectors for frequencies above 1 THz. However, the fabrication procedure of these devices is such that the quality of the interface between the NbN superconducting film and the contact structure is not under good control. This results in a contact resistance between the NbN bolometer and the contact pad. We compare identical bolometers, with different NbN – contact pad interfaces, coupled with a spiral antenna. We find that cleaning the NbN interface and adding a thin additional superconductor prior to the gold contact deposition improves the noise temperature and the bandwidth of the HEB mixers with more than a factor of 2. We obtain a DSB noise temperature of 950 K at 2.5 THz and a Gain bandwidth of 5-6 GHz. For use in real receiver systems we design small volume (0.15x1 micron) HEB mixers with a twin slot antenna. We find that these mixers combine good sensitivity (900 K at 1.6 THz) with low LO power requirement, which is 160 – 240 nW at the Si lens of the mixer. This value is larger than expected from the isothermal technique and the known losses in the lens by a factor of 3-3.5.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher SPIE Place of Publication Editor Zmuidzinas, J.; Holland, W.S.; Withington, S.
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors for Astronomy II
Notes Approved no
Call Number Serial 1744
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