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International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz)

THz fast detectors and THz metadevices based on type-II superconductors

Sara Cibella, P. Carelli, Maria Gabriella Castellano, F. Chiarello, Alessandro Gaggero, E. Giovine, Giacomo Scalari, G. Torrioli, Roberto Leoni

Published Sep 1, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We will report our latest achievements with ultrathin NbN films for the development of conventional antenna coupled hot-electron-bolometer (AC-HEB) and of active metadevices, i.e. a frequency selective metamaterial with an integrated bolometer.
DOI
10.1109/irmmw-thz.2016.7758430

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A Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer for 2.5 THz utilizing a NbN thin film device, integrated with a Broken Linearly Tapered Slot Antenna (BLTSA), has been fabricated and is presently being tested. The NbN HEB device and the antenna were fabricated on a SiO/sub 2/ membrane. A 0.5 micrometer thick SiO/sub 2/ layer was grown by rf magnetron reactive sputtering on a GaAs wafer. The HEB device (phonon-cooled type) was produced as several parallel strips, 1 micrometer wide, from an ultrathin NbN film 4-7 nm thick, that was deposited onto the SiO/sub 2/ layer by dc magnetron reactive sputtering. The BLTSA was photoetched in a multilayer Ti-Au metallization. In order to strengthen the membrane, the front-side of the wafer was coated with a 5 micrometer thick polyimide layer just before the membrane formation. The last operation was anisotropic etching of the GaAs in a mixture of HNO/sub 3/ and H/sub 2/O/sub 2/.
We present recent advances in the development of NbN hot-electron bolometric (HEB) mixers for flying terahertz heterodyne receivers. Three important issues have been addressed: the quality of the source NbN films, the effect of the bolometer size on the spectral properties of different planar feed antennas, and the local oscillator (LO) power required for optimal operation of the mixer. Studies of the NbN films with an atomic force microscope indicated a surface structure that may affect the performance of the smallest mixers. Measured spectral gain and noise temperature suggest that at frequencies above 2.5 THz the spiral feed provides better overall performance than the double-slot feed. Direct measurements of the optimal LO power support earlier estimates made in the framework of the uniform mixer model.
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