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Superconducting integrated THz receiver

Michael Merker

Published Jan 1, 2019• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The operation frequency of superconducting integrated THz receivers can be enhanced by replacing the commonly used elementary niobium with niobium nitride. This work presents the technology development of high-quality niobium nitride thin films and superconductor-insulator-superconductor multilayers along with the simulation and realization of high-frequency circuits for a superconducting integrated THz receiver using niobium nitride electrodes.

DOI
10.5445/ksp/1000097713

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Journal of Applied Physics•May 25, 2005•29 citations
The operation frequency of superconducting integrated THz receivers can be enhanced by replacing the commonly used elementary niobium with niobium nitride. This work presents the technology development of high-quality niobium nitride thin films and superconductor-insulator-superconductor multilayers along with the simulation and realization of high-frequency circuits for a superconducting integrated THz receiver using niobium nitride electrodes.
The key technology for low-noise THz receivers operating above 1 THz, lies inevitably in the employment niobium nitride superconductors with critical bulk temperature of 16-17K. The enhancement of HEB’s limited IF bandwidth has been a relevant topic for two decades and is associated with the quality, hence critical temperature, Tc, of the 3.5-6nm thin NbN films. This thesis revisits the concept of employing buffer-layers which have not been utilized yet to deposit NbN onto. As a result, state-of-the-art 5.5nm thin NbN films have been successfully deposited exhibiting Tc as high as 13.2K and RRR-figure-of-merit close to unity. These films show considerable potential for highly-integrated THz electronics.
The results of the development and testing of superconducting integrated microcircuits based on NbTiN/Al transmission lines at the frequencies up to 1.1 THz are presented. The integrated circuits consist of a slot planar antenna made of thin film of NbTiN coupled to a NbTiN/Al microstrip line, and a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junction based on Nb/AlN/NbN operating as a terahertz (THz) detector. Two different designs having the operating range of 0.9-1.2 THz were numerically simulated, fabricated and experimentally tested. A strong pumping of SIS detector by a signal of the backward wave oscillator (BWO) around frequency of 1.05 THz was observed, which demonstrated the applicability of fabricated transmission lines at frequencies higher than 750 GHz, where the traditionally used Nb/Nb transmission lines cannot operate.
The most developed integrated receivers for THz radiation nowadays are based on Josephson junction superconductor-insulator-superconductor devices. In this kind of devices, the highest receivable frequency is determined by the energy gap of the superconducting electrodes and limited to approximately 700 GHz in case of Nb/AlOx/Nb multilayers. We have developed a technology for NbN/AlN/NbN Josephson junctions on sapphire substrates which allow operation at frequencies above 1 THz. The trilayers are deposited in situ in a three-chamber dc-magnetron sputtering system at temperatures as high as 775 °C. Each layer is reactively sputtered in an argon and nitrogen atmosphere. By variation of the partial gas pressures and discharge current of the plasma, optimum deposition conditions for the tri-layers were found. So far, gap voltages as high as 5.1 mV at 4.2 K have been achieved which allows the operation frequency of the JJ devices to exceed 1 THz.
In recent years, responding to the need of the astronomical community, superconductor - insulator - superconductor (SIS) mixers have been developed to operate at THz frequencies. Best results are obtained by using niobium-based tunnel junctions with well-matched low-loss normal metal striplines, which are found to be less lossy than niobium striplines operated above the gap frequency of niobium (700 GHz). Niobium nitride tunnel junctions with a magnesium oxide tunnel barrier, although having reasonable-quality current - voltage characteristics, have been found to be unsuitable owing to excess shot noise resulting from pinholes in the barrier.
This paper describes the optimization of the existing technology for the fabrication of superconducting films and high-quality tunnel junctions on a magnetron sputtering facility. To expand the frequency range to 1.1 THz and to obtain the limiting parameters of superconducting elements, the regimes of production of Nb, NbN, NbTiN films were optimized. These films are used to fabricate superconductor-insulator-superconductor Nb/Al--AlN/NbN tunnel junctions. Al and NbTiN films are required to create receiving elements at frequencies above 700 GHz (the cutoff frequency for niobium); such structures are being developed for the radio astronomy array receiver located in the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope. Keywords: superconductivity, tunnel junctions, magnetron sputtering, thin films.
Integrating NbTiN-based microstrip tuning circuits with traditional Nb superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions enables the low-noise operation regime of SIS mixers to be extended from below 0.7to1.15THz. In particular, mixers incorporating a NbTiN∕SiO2∕NbTiN microstrip tuning circuit offer low-noise performance below 0.8–0.85THz, although their sensitivities drop significantly at higher frequencies. Furthermore, a microstrip geometry in which NbTiN is used as the ground plane material only (NbTiN∕SiO2∕Al) yields significant improvements in the sensitivities of SIS mixers operating up to 1.15THz, with an upper operating frequency that depends upon the quality of the NbTiN layer, and thus its deposition process. Films deposited at room temperature have Tc=14.4K and ρn,20K∼60μΩcm, and offer low-noise performance up to 1THz, whereas films deposited at 400°C have Tc=16K and ρn,20K∼110μΩcm, and offer low-noise performance up to 1.15THz. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the high-frequency surface resistance of a NbTiN layer depends upon the film’s structural properties. Most significantly, the drop in performance that is seen at F>1THz in mixers incorporating NbTiN ground planes deposited at room temperature is attributed to nonhomogeneities in the structural and electrical properties of these films, as is the poor performance of mixers that incorporate NbTiN wiring layers at F>0.85THz. The development of these NbTiN-based microstrip tuning circuits will enable the production of low-noise SIS mixers for the 0.8–0.96- and 0.96–1.12-THz frequency bands of the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared on board the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory.