PT Unknown
AU Ryabchun, S
   Tong, C-E
   Blundell, R
   Kimberk, R
   Gol’tsman, G
TI Effect of microwave radiation on the stability of terahertz hot-electron bolometer mixers
SE Proc. SPIE
PY 2006
BP 63730J (1 to 5)
VL 6373
DI 10.1117/12.686291
DE NbN HEB mixers; hot-electron bolometer mixers; stability; Allan variance; LO power fluctuations
AB We report our studies of the effect of microwave radiation, with a frequency much lower than that corresponding to the energy gap of the superconductor, on the performance of the NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixer incorporated into a THz heterodyne receiver. It is shown that exposing the HEB mixer to microwave radiation does not result in a significant rise of the receiver noise temperature and degradation of the mixer conversion gain so long as the level of microwave power is small compared to the local oscillator drive. Hence the injection of a small, but controlled amount of microwave radiation enables active compensation of local oscillator power and coupling fluctuations which can significantly degrade the stability of HEB mixer receivers.
ER