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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

Characterization of NbN HEB Mixers Cooled by a Close-Cycled 4 Kelvin Refrigerator

Ling Jiang, J. Li, Wen Zhang, Qi Yao, Zhenhui Lin, S. C. Shi, Yu. B. Vachtomin, Sergey V. Antipov, S. Svechnikov, Boris M. Voronov, G. N. Gol'Tsman

Published Jun 1, 2005• 9 citations
Publisher

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.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2005.849891

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In this paper, we present the performance of a quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB (hot-electron bolometer) mixer cryogenically cooled by a 4-K close-cycled refrigerator. The variation of resistance of the NbN HEB mixer with respect to temperature is examined at first. Its receiver noise temperature and conversion gain are measured at different dc bias voltages and LO pumping levels. The lowest receiver noise temperature is 1400 K (with no corrections), and reduced to about 358 K after eliminating the quasi-optical losses. The stability of IF output power of this HEB mixer is also discussed.
In this paper, we report the performance of a quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB (hot electron bolometer) mixer measured at 500 and 850GHz. The quasi-optical NbN superconducting HEB mixer is cryogenically cooled by a 4-K close-cycled refrigerator. Measured receiver noise temperature at 850 and 500GHz are 3000K and 2500K respectively with wire grid as beamsplitter, while the lowest receiver noise temperature is found to be approximately 1200K with Mylar film. The theoretical receiver noise temperature (taking into account the elliptical polarization of log-spiral antenna) is consistent with measured one. The receiver noise temperature and conversion gain with 15-μm Mylar film as the beamsplitter at 500GHz are thoroughly investigated for different LO pumping levels and dc biases. The stability of the mixer’s IF output power is also demonstrated.