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Superconductor Science and Technology

The stability of a terahertz receiver based on a superconducting integrated receiver

Roman V. Ozhegov, К. Н. Горшков, Gregory N Gol'tsman, Nickolay V. Kinev, V. P. Koshelets

Published Dec 23, 2010• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present the results of stability testing of a terahertz radiometer based on a superconducting receiver with a SIS tunnel junction as the mixer and a flux-flow oscillator as the local oscillator. In the continuum mode, the receiver with a noise temperature of 95 K at 510 GHz measured over the intermediate frequency (IF) passband of 4–8 GHz offered a noise equivalent temperature difference of 10 ± 1 mK at an integration time of 1 s. We offer a method to significantly increase the integration time without the use of complex measurement equipment. The receiver observed a strong signal over a final detection bandwidth of 4 GHz and offered an Allan time of 5 s.

DOI
10.1088/0953-2048/24/3/035003

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We present the results of stability testing of a terahertz radiometer based on a superconducting receiver with a SIS tunnel junction as the mixer and a flux-flow oscillator as the local oscillator. In the continuum mode, the receiver with a noise temperature of 95 K at 510 GHz measured over the intermediate frequency (IF) passband of 4–8 GHz offered a noise equivalent temperature difference of 10 ± 1 mK at an integration time of 1 s. We offer a method to significantly increase the integration time without the use of complex measurement equipment. The receiver observed a strong signal over a final detection bandwidth of 4 GHz and offered an Allan time of 5 s.
A Superconducting Integrated Receiver (SIR) comprises on one chip all elements needed for heterodyne detection: a low-noise SIS mixer with quasioptical antenna, a Flux-Flow Oscillator (FFO) acting as a Local Oscillator (LO) and a second SIS harmonic mixer (HM) for the FFO phase locking. Light weight and low power consumption combined with nearly quantum limited sensitivity and a wide tuning range of the FFO make SIR a perfect candidate for many practical applications. In particular, the SIR developed for novel balloon borne instrument TELIS (TErahertz and submillimeter LImb Sounder) covers frequency range 480 - 650 GHz. As a result of recent receiver's optimization the DSB noise temperature was measured as low as 120 K for the SIR with intermediate frequency (IF) band 4 - 8 GHz. The capability of the SIR for high resolution atmospheric spectroscopy has been successfully proven with scientific balloon flights from Kiruna, North Sweden. Diurnal cycles of ClO and BrO has been observed with BrO line level of only about 0.5 K. Possibility to use the SIRs for analysis of the breathed out air at medical survey has been demonstrated.
The dependence of the noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of a superconducting integrated receiver (SIR) on the receiver noise temperature and the inputsignal level has been investigated. An unprecedented NETD of 13±2 mK has been measured at a SIR noise temperature of 200 K, intermediate-frequency bandwidth of 4 GHz, and time constant of 1 s. With a decrease in the input signal, an improvement in the NETD is observed. This effect is explained by a reduction in the influence of the instabilities of the receiver power supply and the amplification circuit that occur when the input signal is decreased.
In this report an overview of the results on the devel- opment of a single-chip superconducting integrated receiver for the Terahertz Limb Sounder (TELIS) balloon project intended to measure a variety of stratosphere trace gases is presented. The Superconducting Integrated Receiver (SIR) comprises in one chip a planar antenna integrated with a superconductor-insulator-su- perconductor (SIS) mixer, a superconducting Flux Flow Oscillator (FFO) acting as Local Oscillator (LO) and a second SIS harmonic mixer (HM) for FFO phase locking. As a result of the FFO design optimization a free-running linewidth between 9 and 1.5 MHz has been measured in the frequency range 500-710 GHz resulting in phase-locking of 35 to 95% of the FFO power correspond- ingly. A new generation of the SIR devices with improved FFO performance and optimized interface between FFO and SIS/HM has been developed and comprehensively tested. As a result all required TELIS parameters were demonstrated. Phase-locked FFO operation over entire SIR channel frequency range has been realized, spectral resolution below 1 MHz has been confirmed by gas cell and CW signal measurements. An uncorrected double side band (DSB) noise temperature below 250 K has been measured with the phase-locked FFO. The intermediate frequency band- width 4-8 GHz has been realized. To ensure remote operation of the phase-locked SIR several procedures for its automatic computer control have been developed and tested.
In this paper we discuss the stability of heterodyne terahertz receivers based on small volume NbN phonon cooled hot electron bolometers (HEBs). The stability of these receivers can be broken down in two parts: the intrinsic stability of the HEB mixer and the stability of the local oscillator (LO) signal injection scheme. Measurements show that the HEB mixer stability is limited by gain fluctuations with a 1∕f spectral distribution. In a 60MHz noise bandwidth this results in an Allan variance stability time of ∼0.3s. Measurement of the spectroscopic Allan variance between two intermediate frequency (IF) channels results in a much longer Allan variance stability time, i.e., 3s between a 2.5 and a 4.7GHz channel, and even longer for more closely spaced channels. This implies that the HEB mixer 1∕f noise is strongly correlated across the IF band and that the correlation gets stronger the closer the IF channels are spaced. In the second part of the paper we discuss atmospheric and mechanical system stability requirements on the LO-mixer cavity path length. We calculate the mixer output noise fluctuations as a result of small perturbations of the LO-mixer standing wave, and find very stringent mechanical and atmospheric tolerance requirements for receivers operating at terahertz frequencies.
In this report an overview of the results on the development of a single-chip superconducting integrated receiver for the Terahertz Limb Sounder (TELIS) balloon project intended to measure a variety of stratosphere trace gases is presented. The Superconducting Integrated Receiver (SIR) comprises in one chip a planar antenna integrated with a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer, a superconducting Flux Flow Oscillator (FFO) acting as local oscillator (LO) and a second SIS harmonic mixer (HM) for FFO phase locking. As a result of the FFO design optimization a free-running linewidth between 9 and 1.5 MHz has been measured in the frequency range 500-710 GHz resulting in phase-locking of 35 to 95% of the FFO power correspondingly. A new generation of the SIR devices with improved FFO performance and optimized interface between FFO and SIS/HM has been developed and comprehensively tested. As a result all required TELIS parameters were demonstrated. Phase-locked FFO operation over entire SIR channel frequency range has been realized, spectral resolution below 1 MHz has been confirmed by gas cell and CW signal measurements. An uncorrected double side band (DSB) noise temperature below 250 K has been measured with the phase-locked FFO. The intermediate frequency bandwidth 4-8 GHz has been realized. To ensure remote operation of the phase-locked SIR several procedures for its automatic computer control have been developed and tested.
We describe the performance of a superconductor- insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer operating in the frequency range of 780-950 GHz. Unlike most SIS mixers, the tunnel junction employs two different superconductors, a niobium nitride top and a niobium bottom electrode sandwiching an aluminum nitride barrier layer, fabricated on a niobium titanium nitride ground plane. The mixer was tested in a pulse tube cryostat, with all the optical components, in the signal path, mounted inside the vacuum environment to avoid attenuation of the RF signal as it propagates from the hot/cold loads to the mixer. With this setup, we have measured an RF-corrected noise temperature of ~220 K. In this article, we focus on investigating the influence of local oscillator (LO) power heating on the performance of the terahertz mixer. The increase in the junction's physical temperature can be observed experimentally by noting the suppression of the gap voltage in the pumped current-voltage (I-V ) curve as the LO pumping level is increased. Similar observation has already been reported, and attempts were made to estimate the effective temperature of the device using equations of heat transfer between the mixer chip layers. Here, we present an experimental method of quantifying this effect by recovering the effective temperature of the junction through comparing the pumped I-V curves at different pumping levels and fixed bath temperature, with the unpumped I-V curves obtained at varying bath temperatures. We also estimate, for the first time, the effect of heating on the noise temperature as a function of bath temperature and frequency. We show that for typical experimental parameters, the LO heating can increase the double-sideband receiver noise temperature by as much as 20%, and that in the frequency range of the measurements, the effective temperature of the junction at fixed LO power increases linearly with frequency at a rate of 0.5 K/100 GHz.