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IEEE International Workshop on Electromagnetics: Applications and Student Innovation Competition

Low noise HEB/QCL integrated heterodyne receiver at 2.7 THz

Hao Gao, W. Miao, Z. Lou, Wen Zhang, Qi Yao, S. C. Shi, Y. Delorme, R. Lefèvre, Gangyi Xu

Published May 1, 2016• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper, we present a low noise integrated heterodyne receiver at 2.7 THz. This heterodyne receiver is based on a superconducting hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer and a low power consumption quantum cascade laser (QCL) that are both integrated on the same 4 K stage of a pulse tube cooler. We measured the noise temperature of the HEB/QCL integrated heterodyne receiver by using hot and cold blackbody loads in vacuum. The lowest double sideband receiver noise temperature is about 1000 K at 2.7 THz, and reduced to 500 K after eliminating the quasi-optical losses. In addition, the HEB/QCL integrated heterodyne receiver demonstrates an intermediate frequency (IF) noise bandwidth of 4 GHz.

DOI
10.1109/iwem.2016.7505025

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In this paper, we present a low noise integrated heterodyne receiver at 2.7 THz. This heterodyne receiver is based on a superconducting hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer and a low power consumption quantum cascade laser (QCL) that are both integrated on the same 4 K stage of a pulse tube cooler. We measured the noise temperature of the HEB/QCL integrated heterodyne receiver by using hot and cold blackbody loads in vacuum. The lowest double sideband receiver noise temperature is about 1000 K at 2.7 THz, and reduced to 500 K after eliminating the quasi-optical losses. In addition, the HEB/QCL integrated heterodyne receiver demonstrates an intermediate frequency (IF) noise bandwidth of 4 GHz.
We report on the demonstration of an ultra-high-sensitivity superconducting hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) heterodyne receiver at 2.5 THz with a low-power-consumption quantum cascade laser (QCL) as its local oscillator (LO). The 2.5-THz QCL, with an electrical power dissipation of about 0.9 W in continuous wave mode, is integrated with a spiral-antenna-coupled niobium nitride HEB mixer in a single block. The mixer performance is barely affected by heat dissipation from the QCL when the receiver is cryogenically cooled either by a wet LHe Dewar or by a closed-cycle 4-K pulse-tube cooler. Measured with a vacuum setup, the heterodyne receiver exhibits a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 800 K at 2.5 THz with the IR filter contribution corrected, which is approximately 7hυ/kB. And the Allan variance time at 80-MHz noise bandwidth is found to be about 10 s when a proportional-integral-derivative controller is adopted to control the LO power.
We demonstrate for the first time the integration of a superconducting hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer and a quantum cascade laser (QCL) on the same 4-K stage of a single cryostat, which is of particular interest for terahertz (THz) HEB/QCL integrated heterodyne receivers for practical applications. Two key issues are addressed. Firstly, a low power consumption QCL is adopted for preventing its heat dissipation from destroying the HEB's superconductivity. Secondly, a simple spherical lens located on the same 4-K stage is introduced to optimize the coupling between the HEB and the QCL, which has relatively limited output power owing to low input direct current (DC) power. Note that simulation techniques are used to design the HEB/QCL integrated heterodyne receiver to avoid the need for mechanical tuning. The integrated HEB/QCL receiver shows an uncorrected noise temperature of 1500 K at 2.7 THz, which is better than the performance of the same receiver with all the components not integrated.
We have developed the 3.1-THz heterodyne receiver using an NbTiN Hot-Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer and a THz Quantum Cascade Laser (THz-QCL) as a local oscillator. A quasi optical twin-slot antenna is adopted for the coupling of the RF signal with the mixer. The receiver noise temperature is measured to be 5600 K in DSB. When the optical loss is corrected, it is as low as 2100 K. This result demonstrates that the NbTiN HEB mixer works with the equivalent level of performance at 3.1 THz in comparison with the NbN HEB mixers usually employed in this frequency region.
We report here a sensitivity measurement of an all solid-state heterodyne receiver which uses a twin slot antenna coupled, small superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer as mixer and a semiconductor quantum cascade laser operating at 2.8 THz as local oscillator. We measure a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 3200 K at 2.8 THz and 4.2 K. We find that the optimal LO power is 33 nW measured at HEB and 1.3 /spl mu/W estimated at the QCL, much lower than the output power of the QCL. Such a receiver can be used for high-resolution spectroscopy above 2 THz and is particularly suitable for space-based observatories.
We highlight the progress on NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers achieved through fruitful collaboration between SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research and Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. This includes the best receiver noise temperatures of 700 K at 1.63 THz using a twin-slot antenna mixer and 1050 K at 2.84 THz using a spiral antenna coupled HEB mixer. The mixers are based on thin NbN films on Si and fabricated with a new contact-process and-structure. By reducing their areas HEB mixers have shown an LO power requirement as low as 30 nW. Those small HEB mixers have demonstrated equivalent sensitivity as those with large areas provided the direct detection effect due to broadband radiation is removed. To manifest that a HEB based heterodyne receiver can in practice be used at arbitrary frequencies above 2 THz, we demonstrate a 2.8 THz receiver using a THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) as local oscillator.