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

Superconducting tunnel junction receiver for 2.6 mm

S.-K. Pan, M. J. Feldman, Anthony R. Kerr, E. S. Palmer, John A. Grange, P. T. Timbie

Published Dec 1, 1983• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A 110–118 GHz receiver based on a superconducting quasiparticle tunnel junction mixer is described. The single-sideband noise temperature is as low as 68 ± 3 K. This is nearly twice the sensitivity of any other receiver at this frequency.
DOI
10.1109/irmm.1983.9126387

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Superconducting tunnel junction receiver for 2.6 mm.

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A 110–118 GHz receiver based on a superconducting quasiparticle tunnel junction mixer is described. The single-sideband noise temperature is as low as 68 ± 3 K. This is nearly twice the sensitivity of any other receiver at this frequency.

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Small-area (≲1 μm2) oxide-barrier tunnel junctions have been made of thermally cyclable superconducting Pb alloys for use as high-frequency mixers. A single-sideband mixer noise temperature of <100 K has been achieved at 115 GHz. This result was achieved in the quasiparticle (classical) mixing mode.

Applied Physics Letters•Mar 1, 1979•137 citations
A 110–118-GHz receiver based on a superconducting quasiparticle tunnel junction mixer is described. The single-sideband noise temperature is as low as 68±3 K. This is nearly twice the sensitivity of any other receiver at this frequency. The receiver was designed using a low-frequency scale model in conjunction with the quantum mixer theory. A scaled version of the receiver for operation at 46 GHz has a single-sideband noise temperature of 55 K. The factors leading to the success of this design are discussed.
We have developed a low-noise 850 GHz superconductor–insulator–superconductor quasiparticle mixer with NbTiN thin-film microstrip tuning circuits and hybrid Nb/AlN/NbTiN tunnel junctions. The mixer uses a quasioptical configuration with a planar twin-slot antenna feeding a two-junction tuning circuit. At 798 GHz, we measured an uncorrected double-sideband receiver noise temperature of TRX=260 K at 4.2 K bath temperature. This mixer outperforms current Nb SIS mixers by a factor of nearly 2 near 800 GHz. The high-gap frequency and low loss at 800 GHz make NbTiN an attractive material with which to fabricate tuning circuits for SIS mixers. NbTiN mixers can potentially operate up to the gap frequency, 2Δ/h∼1.2 THz.
Superconducting thin film tunnel junctions of small area (.1 \rightarrow 1μm2) have properties which make them suitable for high frequency (≳100 GHz) heterodyne receivers. Both pair and single quasiparticle tunneling is present in these devices, but it is found that the mixing due to the pair effect is apparently excessively noisy, whereas the single quasiparticle effect has a low noise character which gives hope for near quantum limited performance. The physical effect involved is photon assisted quasiparticle tunneling and was first observed by Dayem and Martin[1]. We have made laboratory tests at 115 and 230 GHz which gave single side band (SSB) mixer noise temperatures of 60 and 300 K respectively. Also we have fabricated a 90-140 GHz receiver for the Caltech Owens Valley Radio Observatory which has an overall receiver noise temperature of about 300 K (SSB).