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IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology

An Ultra-High-Sensitivity Superconducting Hot-Electron-Bolometer Heterodyne Receiver at 2.5 THz With an Integrated Low-Power-Consumption Quantum Cascade Laser

Wei Miao, Hao Gao, Zheng Lou, Jie Hu, Wen Zhang, Yuan Ren, Kangmin Zhou, Sheng‐Cai Shi, Hua Li, Juncheng Cao, Y. Delorme

Published Sep 6, 2018• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1109/tthz.2018.2869026

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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 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.
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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 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.
We report on the development of a heterodyne receiver at mid-infrared wavelength for high-resolution spectroscopy applications. The receiver employs a superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer as a mixer and a room temperature distributed feedback quantum cascade laser operating at 10.6 μm (28.2 THz) as a local oscillator. The stabilization of the heterodyne receiver has been achieved using a feedback loop controlling the output power of the laser. Improved Allan variance times as well as a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 5000 K and a noise bandwidth of 2.8 GHz of the receiver system are demonstrated.