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Ekstrom, H., Karasik, B., Weikle, R., Yngvesson, K. S., Gol’tsman, G., Kollberg, E., et al. (1993). Mixers using superconducting Nb films in the resistive state. In 23rd European Microwave Conf. (pp. 787–789).
Abstract: The mixing of 20 GHz radiation in a Nb superconducting film in the resistive state was studied. The experiment gave evidence of electron-heating to be the origin of the non-linear phenomenon. The requirements on the operation mode and on the film parameters in order to obtain small conversion losses or even gain are determined. Our measurements indicate a conversion loss of about 6-8 dB. The hot-electron bolometer is considered to be very promising for use in heterodyne receivers in a wide frequency range from microwaves to terahertz frequencies.
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Ekstörm, H., Kollberg, E., Yagoubov, P., Gol'tsman, G., Gershenzon, E., & Yngvesson, S. (1997). Gain and noise bandwidth of NbN hot-electron bolometric mixers. Appl. Phys. Lett., 70(24), 3296–3298.
Abstract: We have measured the noise performance and gain bandwidth of 35 Å thin NbN hot-electron mixers integrated with spiral antennas on silicon substrate lenses at 620 GHz. The best double-sideband receiver noise temperature is less than 1300 K with a 3 dB bandwidth of ≈5 GHz. The gain bandwidth is 3.2 GHz. The mixer output noise dominated by thermal fluctuations is 50 K, and the intrinsic conversion gain is about −12 dB. Without mismatch losses and excluding the loss from the beamsplitter, we expect to achieve a receiver noise temperature of less than 700 K.
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Yagoubov, P., Kroug, M., Merkel, H., Kollberg, E., Gol'tsman, G., Svechnikov, S., et al. (1998). Noise temperature and local oscillator power requirement of NbN phonon-cooled hot electron bolometric mixers at terahertz frequencies. Appl. Phys. Lett., 73(19), 2814–2816.
Abstract: In this letter, the noise performance of NbN-based phonon-cooled hot electron bolometric quasioptical mixers is investigated in the 0.55–1.1 THz frequency range. The best results of the double-sideband <cd><2018>DSB<cd><2019> noise temperature are: 500 K at 640 GHz, 600 K at 750 GHz, 850 K at 910 GHz, and 1250 K at 1.1 THz. The water vapor in the signal path causes significant contribution to the measured receiver noise temperature around 1.1 THz. The devices are made from 3-nm-thick NbN film on high-resistivity Si and integrated with a planar spiral antenna on the same substrate. The in-plane dimensions of the bolometer strip are typically 0.2Ï«2 um. The amount of local oscillator power absorbed in the bolometer is less than 100 nW.
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Zhang, W., Khosropanah, P., Gao, J. R., Kollberg, E. L., Yngvesson, K. S., Bansal, T., et al. (2010). Quantum noise in a terahertz hot electron bolometer mixer. Appl. Phys. Lett., 96(11), 111113–(1–3).
Abstract: We have measured the noise temperature of a single, sensitive superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer in a frequency range from 1.6 to 5.3 THz, using a setup with all the key components in vacuum. By analyzing the measured receiver noise temperature using a quantum noise (QN) model for HEB mixers, we confirm the effect of QN. The QN is found to be responsible for about half of the receiver noise at the highest frequency in our measurements. The beta-factor (the quantum efficiency of the HEB) obtained experimentally agrees reasonably well with the calculated value.
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Gol'tsman, G. N., Karasik, B. S., Okunev, O. V., Dzardanov, A. L., Gershenzon, E. M., Ekstrom, H., et al. (1995). NbN hot electron superconducting mixers for 100 GHz operation. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 5(2), 3065–3068.
Abstract: NbN is a promising superconducting material for hot-electron superconducting mixers with an IF bandwidth larger than 1 GHz. In the 1OO GHz frequency range, the following parameters were obtained for 50 /spl Aring/ thick NbN films at 4.2 K: receiver noise temperature (DSB) /spl sim/1000 K; conversion loss /spl sim/10 dB; IF bandwidth /spl sim/1 GHz; and local oscillator power /spl sim/1 /spl mu/W. An increase of the critical current of the NbN film, increased working temperature, and a better mixer matching may allow a broader IF bandwidth up to 2 GHz, reduced conversion losses down to 3-5 dB and a receiver noise temperature (DSB) down to 200-300 K.
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