|
|
Baubert, J., Salez, M., Merkel, H., Pons, P., Cherednichenko, S., Lecomte, B., et al. (2005). IF gain bandwidth of membrane-based NbN hot electron bolometers for SHAHIRA. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 15(2), 507–510.
Abstract: SHAHIRA (Submm Heterodyne Array for HIgh-speed Radio Astronomy) is a project supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and is designed to fly on the SOFIA observatory. A quasi-optic design has been chosen for 2.5/2.7 THz and 4.7 THz, for hydroxyde radical OH, deuterated hydrogen HD and neutral atomic oxygen OI lines observations. Hot electron bolometers (HEBs) have been processed on 1 /spl mu/m thick SiO/sub 2//Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ stress-less membranes. In this paper we analyse the intermediate frequency (IF) gain bandwidth from the theoretical point of view, and compare it to measurements.
|
|
|
|
Jiang, L., Li, J., Zhang, W., Yao, Q. J., Lin, Z. L., Shi, S. C., et al. (2005). Characterization of NbN HEB mixers cooled by a close-cycled 4 Kelvin refrigerator. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 15(2), 511–513.
Abstract: It is quite beneficial to operate superconducting hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) mixers with a close-cycled 4 Kelvin refrigerator for real applications such as astronomy and atmospheric research. In this paper, a phononcooled NbN HEB mixer (quasioptical type) is thoroughly characterized under such a cooling circumstance. The effects of mechanical vibration, electrical interference, and temperature fluctuation of a two-stage Gifford-McMahon 4 Kelvin refrigerator upon the characteristics of the phononcooled NbN HEB mixer are investigated in particular. Detailed measurement results are presented.
|
|
|
|
Goltsman, G., Korneev, A., Minaeva, O., Rubtsova, I., Chulkova, G., Milostnaya, I., et al. (2005). Advanced nanostructured optical NbN single-photon detector operated at 2.0 K. In M. Razeghi, & G. J. Brown (Eds.), Proc. SPIE (Vol. 5732, pp. 520–529). Spie.
Abstract: We present our studies on quantum efficiency (QE), dark counts, and noise equivalent power (NEP) of the latest generation of nanostructured NbN superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) operated at 2.0 K. Our SSPDs are based on 4 nm-thick NbN films, patterned by electron beam lithography as highly-uniform 100÷120-nm-wide meander-shaped stripes, covering the total area of 10x10 μm2 with the meander filling factor of 0.7. Advances in the fabrication process and low-temperature operation lead to QE as high as 30-40% for visible-light photons (0.56 μm wavelength)-the saturation value, limited by optical absorption of the NbN film. For 1.55 μm photons, QE was 20% and decreased exponentially with the wavelength reaching 0.02% at the 5-μm wavelength. Being operated at 2.0-K temperature the SSPDs revealed an exponential decrease of the dark count rate, what along with the high QE, resulted in the NEP as low as 5x10-21 W/Hz-1/2, the lowest value ever reported for near-infrared optical detectors. The SSPD counting rate was measured to be above 1 GHz with the pulse-to-pulse jitter below 20 ps. Our nanostructured NbN SSPDs operated at 2.0 K significantly outperform their semiconducting counterparts and find practical applications ranging from noninvasive testing of CMOS VLSI integrated circuits to ultrafast quantum communications and quantum cryptography.
|
|
|
|
Tarkhov, M., Morozov, D., Mauskopf, P., Seleznev, V., Korneev, A., Kaurova, N., et al. (2006). Single photon counting detector for THz radioastronomy. In Proc. 17th Int. Symp. Space Terahertz Technol. (pp. 119–122).
Abstract: In this paper we present the results of the research on the superconducting NbN-ultrathin-film single- photon detectors (SSPD) which are capable to detect single quanta in middle IR range. The detection mechanism is based on the hotspot formation in quasi-two-dimensional superconducting structures upon photon absorption. Spectral measurements showed that up to 5.7 gm wavelength (52 THz) the SSPD exhibits single-photon sensitivity. Reduction of operation temperature to 1.6 K allowed us to measure quantum efficiency of -4% at 60 THz. Although further decrease of the operation temperature far below 1 K does not lead to any significant increase of quantum efficiency. We expect that the improvement of the SSPD's performance at reduced operation temperature will make SSPD a practical detector with high characteristics for much lower THz frequencies as well.
|
|
|
|
Goltsman, G. N. (2006). Submillimeter superconducting receivers for astronomy, atmospheric studies and other applications. In 31nd IRMW / 14th ICTE (177).
|
|
