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AIP Advances

Fast response of superconducting hot-electron bolometers with a twin-slot nano-antenna for mid-infrared operation

Akira Kawakami, Hisashi Shimakage, Junsei Horikawa, Masaharu Hyodo, Shingo Saito, Shukichi Tanaka, Yoshinori Uzawa

Published Dec 1, 2016• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this study, the use of nano-antennas to improve the response performance of infrared detectors is proposed, and the design and fabrication of antennas that operate in the infrared range is demonstrated. Prototypes of a mid-infrared superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) formed by a twin-slot antenna with a niobium nitride strip were fabricated. When the bolometer was irradiated with mid-infrared (λ = 4.89 μm) pulsed light, responses with clear polarization dependency were observed. When the HEB was biased close to the critical current under mid-infrared pulsed light irradiation, the detector output synchronized with the trigger signal was observed. The output waveforms comprised voltage pulse trains, and the full width at half maximum of the pulse was evaluated to be approximately 0.3 ns.

DOI
10.1063/1.4973455

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In this study, the use of nano-antennas to improve the response performance of infrared detectors is proposed, and the design and fabrication of antennas that operate in the infrared range is demonstrated. Prototypes of a mid-infrared superconducting hot-electron bolometer (HEB) formed by a twin-slot antenna with a niobium nitride strip were fabricated. When the bolometer was irradiated with mid-infrared (λ = 4.89 μm) pulsed light, responses with clear polarization dependency were observed. When the HEB was biased close to the critical current under mid-infrared pulsed light irradiation, the detector output synchronized with the trigger signal was observed. The output waveforms comprised voltage pulse trains, and the full width at half maximum of the pulse was evaluated to be approximately 0.3 ns.
We have proposed using nano-antennas to improve the response performance of infrared detectors. Prototypes of mid-infrared superconducting hot electron bolometer formed by a twin-slot-antenna with an NbN strip were fabricated. By the irradiation of mid-infrared (λ=4.89 μm) pulsed light, clear polarization dependency of responses was observed. When the HEB was biased close to the critical current, the detector output synchronized with the trigger signal was observed. The output waveforms were composed of voltage pulse trains, and the half width of the pulse was evaluated about 0.3 nsec.
As a high-speed and sensitive mid-infrared (MIR) photon detector, we developed a MIR superconducting hot electron bolometer (MIR-HEB). The MIR-HEB consists of a twin-slot MIR-wavelength antenna and a small Nb/NbN superconducting strip located at the antenna's feeding point. To prevent the HEB from latching, a parallel shunt resistor was added. For detector evaluation, a continuous-wave quantum cascade laser with a wavelength of 4.57 μm was used as the source of MIR light. A constant bias current was applied near the HEB critical current during the detector operation. Upon illumination with MIR light, numerous voltage pulses with a width of approximately 4 ns were observed. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the pulse count rates were nearly proportional to the incident power over a two-order magnitude range. We conclude that MIR-HEB achieved MIR photon detection based on this result. Also confirmed were the polarization dependences attributed to the antenna's operation.
As a high-speed and sensitive mid-infrared (MIR) photon detector, we have studied an MIR superconducting hot electron bolometer (MIR-HEB) with a twin slot-antenna. MIR HEBs have been fabricated; it has been demonstrated that HEBs respond to MIR photons with a response time of a few nanoseconds. However, the effective area of the twin slot-antenna was measured as only approximately 6.3 µm2at 66 THz. Therefore, we attempted to expand the area by making it a phased array. The fabricated antenna consists of multiple slot-antennas, MSL circuits, and a load resistor of niobium nitride (NbN) thin film, and the antenna effective areas were evaluated from the absorption rate in the reflection spectrum using an FTIR microscope. The effective area of the antenna consisting of 4 × 4 slot-antennas was estimated to be approximately 48 µm2at 66 THz. We also fabricated prototype MIR-HEBs equipped with a phased array antenna and evaluated its dc-characteristics.
In order to design antennas for mid-infrared (MIR) hot electron bolometers (HEBs), the surface impedance of Au thin films at cryogenic temperatures was evaluated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with a sample cooling system. We fabricated resonator arrays that were constructed by gold thin film strips. The length, width, and thickness of the resonators were set at 1300, 200, and 55 nm, respectively. As the temperature was lowered, the resonant frequency was shifted to the low-frequency side. By fitting the resonant frequency to simulated results, the corrected surface reactance was established for designing MIR nano-antennas. MIR HEBs with a twin-slot antenna were designed and fabricated using the corrected surface impedance. The design frequency was 61 THz. The HEBs were formed as a superconducting strip with Au antennas and electrodes. Here, the superconductivity under the Au electrodes was suppressed by a Ni thin film. For evaluating the mixer properties of the MIR HEBs, measurement setup without beam splitter was constructed. In this setup, local oscillator power was applied directly to the HEB, and we confirmed that the critical current of the HEB can be reduced to be almost zero by the LO irradiation. The HEB responses with clear polarization dependencies were also observed.
Terahertz (THz) direct detectors based on superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometers (HEBs) with microwave (MW) biasing are studied. The MW is used to bias the HEB to the optimum point and to readout the impedance changes caused by the incident THz signals. Compared with the thermal biasing method, this method would be more promising in large scale array with simple readout. The used NbN HEB has an excellent performance as heterodyne detector with the double sideband noise temperature (TN) of 403 K working at 4.2 K and 0.65 THz. As a result, the noise equivalent power of 1.5 pW/Hz1/2 and the response time of 64 ps are obtained for the direct detectors based on the NbN HEBs and working at 4.2 K and 0.65 THz.
In this paper, we report the investigation of direct detection behavior of a superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) based on noise thermometry. The HEB consists of a microbridge made from 5.5 nm thick NbN film and a twin slot antenna for radiation coupling. In the microbridge, hot electron system is generated after radiation pumping and it creates extra noise at RF frequencies. We measured the response of the noise at 0.5-1.8 GHz and the noise equivalent power (NEP) of the superconducting NbN HEB at different bias voltages. The measurement result shows that the superconducting NbN HEB has a noise equivalent power of 1.24×10-12W/Hz1/2at its optimal bias point. We also compared the noise equivalent power measured by noise thermometry at two different readout bandwidths. The measured results are found to be in good agreement with the theoretical one.