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Journal of Applied Physics

Performance of NbN lattice-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixers

Jonathan H. Kawamura, R. Blundell, Edward Tong, Gregory N Gol'tsman, Eugene M. Gershenzon, Boris M. Voronov

Published Oct 1, 1996• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The heterodyne performance of lattice-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixers is measured at 200 GHz. Superconducting thin-film niobium nitride strips with ∼5 nm thickness are used as waveguide mixer elements. A double-sideband receiver noise temperature of 750 K at 244 GHz is measured at an intermediate frequency centered at 1.5 GHz with 500 MHz bandwidth and with 4.2 K device temperature. The instantaneous bandwidth for this mixer is 1.6 GHz. The local oscillator power required by the mixer is about 0.5 μW. The mixer is linear to within 1 dB up to an input power level 6 dB below the local oscillator power. A receiver incorporating a hot-electron bolometric mixer was used to detect molecular line emission in a laboratory gascell. This experiment unambiguously confirms that the receiver noise temperature determined from Y-factor measurements reflects the true heterodyne sensitivity.

DOI
10.1063/1.363304

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Softwaretechnik-Trends•Mar 1, 1998•1 citation
The heterodyne performance of lattice-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixers is measured at 200 GHz. Superconducting thin-film niobium nitride strips with ∼5 nm thickness are used as waveguide mixer elements. A double-sideband receiver noise temperature of 750 K at 244 GHz is measured at an intermediate frequency centered at 1.5 GHz with 500 MHz bandwidth and with 4.2 K device temperature. The instantaneous bandwidth for this mixer is 1.6 GHz. The local oscillator power required by the mixer is about 0.5 μW. The mixer is linear to within 1 dB up to an input power level 6 dB below the local oscillator power. A receiver incorporating a hot-electron bolometric mixer was used to detect molecular line emission in a laboratory gascell. This experiment unambiguously confirms that the receiver noise temperature determined from Y-factor measurements reflects the true heterodyne sensitivity.
Lattice-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometric mixers are used in a submillimeter-wave waveguide heterodyne receiver. The mixer elements are niobium nitride film with 3.5 nm thickness and ∼10 μm2 area. The local oscillator power for optimal performance is estimated to be 0.5 μW, and the instantaneous bandwidth is 2.2 GHz. At an intermediate frequency centered at 1.4 GHz with 200 MHz bandwidth, the double sideband receiver noise temperature is 410 K at 430 GHz. The receiver has been used to detect molecular line emission in a laboratory gas cell.
The performance of a hot-electron bolometric (HEB) mixer based on NbN from 0.9 to 2.5 THz was investigated using a quasi-optical receiver configuration. An HEB mixer is an ultra-thin superconducting NbN strip located at the feed point of a thick normal conducting Au spiral antenna on a high-resistivity Si substrate. The active area of the mixer was 3 nm thick, 0.4 μm long and 4 μm wide. The quasi-optics consisted of an MgO hyperhemisphere with anti-reflection caps made of Kapton-JP polyimide film and an offset parabola to reduce input losses. The frequency dependence of the double-sideband receiver noise temperature was investigated at several frequencies by using a backward wave oscillator or an optically pumped far-infrared laser as the local oscillator. Results demonstrated low-noise and wide-band characteristics, below 1 K GHz −1 over the measured frequency range. At 917 GHz, the measured receiver noise temperature was 550 K across a 500 MHz intermediate-frequency bandwidth centred at 1.5 GHz, which is slightly better than that of other HEB mixers at around this frequency. This paper was presented at the 8th International Superconductive Electronics Conference, Osaka, Japan, 19–22 June 2001.
The performance of a NbN based phonon-cooled Hot Electron Bolometric (HEB) quasioptical mixer is investigated in the 0.65-3.12 THz frequency range. The device is made from a 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 0.2/spl times/2 /spl mu/m. The best results of the DSB noise temperature at 1.5 GHz IF frequency obtained with one device are: 1300 K at 650 GHz, 4700 K at 2.5 THz and 10000 K at 3.12 THz. The measurements were performed at 4.5 K ambient temperature. The amount of local oscillator (LO) power absorbed in the bolometer is about 100 nW. The mixer is linear to within 1 dB compression up to the signal level 10 dB below that of the LO. The intrinsic single sideband conversion gain measured at 650 GHz is -9 dB, the total conversion gain is -14 dB.
We have developed a low-noise waveguide heterodyne receiver for operation near 1 THz using phonon-cooled NbN hot-electron bolometers. The mixer elements are submicron-sized microbridges of 4 nm-thick NbN film fabricated on a quartz substrate. Operating at a bath temperature of 4.2 K, the double-sideband receiver noise temperature is 760 K at 1.02 THz and 1100 K at 1.26 THz. The local oscillator is provided by solid-state sources, and power measured at the source is less than 1 /spl mu/W. The intermediate frequency bandwidth exceeds 2 GHz. The receiver was used to make the first ground-based heterodyne detection of a celestial spectroscopic line above 1 THz.
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 (DSB) 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 0.2×2 μm. The amount of local oscillator power absorbed in the bolometer is less than 100 nW.
The noise performance of a receiver incorporating spiral antenna coupled NbN phonon-cooled superconducting hot electron bolometric mixer is measured from 450 GHz to 1200 GHz. The mixer element is thin (thickness —3.5 nm) NbN 1.5 p.m wide and 0.2 pm long film fabricated by lift-off e-beam lithography on high-resistive silicon substrate. The noise of the receiver temperature is 1000 K at 800-900 GHz, 1200 K at 950 GHz, and 1600 K at 1.08 THz. The required (absorbed) local-oscillator power is —20 nW.