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IEEE International Conference on Electronic Information and Communication Technology (ICEICT)

Terahertz Antenna Characterization by the Josephson Effect for Superconducting Terahertz Detectors

Mei Yu, Weiwei Xu, Jin Shi, Linghui Kong

Published Nov 13, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Bowtie loaded meander antenna was applied on a high-Tc superconducting Josephson-junction terahertz detector to enhance the coupling efficiency. The antenna performance is evaluated by a new method based on measuring the maximum of the 1st-order Shapiro step under per incident power. The experiment indicates that the outcome by this new method fits the coupling efficiency well. Thus, THz antenna can be characterized in a new way besides the traditional vector network analyzer.

DOI
10.1109/iceict51264.2020.9334252

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Bowtie loaded meander antenna was applied on a high-Tc superconducting Josephson-junction terahertz detector to enhance the coupling efficiency. The antenna performance is evaluated by a new method based on measuring the maximum of the 1st-order Shapiro step under per incident power. The experiment indicates that the outcome by this new method fits the coupling efficiency well. Thus, THz antenna can be characterized in a new way besides the traditional vector network analyzer.
In a quasi-optical system, the high temperature superconducting terahertz detector often suffers from a fundamental problem of low coupling efficiency with the terahertz signal, especially for the detector based on YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) bicrystal Josephson junction (JJ) due to a small normal-state resistance. Here, we developed a bowtie loaded meander antenna to enhance coupling efficiency. Differing from the conventional characterization confining on vector network analyzers, we applied three methods to evaluate the antenna, including the measurements of the maximal size of the first order Shapiro step under per incident power, the coupling efficiency between the antenna and the junction, and voltage responsivity. Furthermore, with simulation analysis, we propose that the inductive reactance of the YBCO bicrystal JJ is around 60 ohms under terahertz irradiation at 210 GHz, thus, the reactance is comparable as that of the antenna.
We present, in this work, a new thin-film antenna-coupled high-temperature superconducting (HTS) Josephson-junction terahertz (THz) mixer that demonstrates superior performance at frequencies around 0.34 THz. A novel dual-meander-slot thin-film antenna is designed to significantly improve the antenna-junction impedance matching and thus more efficient coupling of the THz signal power. Theoretical and experimental investigations are carried out to evaluate the mixer performance. This mixer can be applied to the sensitive THz wireless receivers.
High temperature superconducting (HTS) Josephson junction (JJ) mixers are attractive candidates in receivers for terahertz (THz) communication due to their high sensitivity, wide bandwidth, low local oscillator (LO) power requirement and high harmonic numbers. The required LO frequencies and the cost can be greatly reduced when harmonic signals can be detected at high orders (more than 100). In this paper, up to 114thharmonic mixings is presented in a HTS bicrystal YBa2Cu3O7-δ(YBCO) JJ harmonic mixer coupled with a bowtie loaded meander antenna at 0.21 THz. HTS JJs will be promising high-order harmonic mixers for THz practical applications on reception or detection at THz bands.
The high-Tcsuperconducting (HTS) bicrystal YBa2Cu3O7-δ(YBCO) zero-bias-operation Josephson junction (JJ) harmonic mixer coupled with a bowtie loaded meander antenna (BLMA) is proposed and studied at 0.21 THz. When the JJ mixer coupled with the BLMA, the maximal harmonic number increases up to 146 with the conversion efficiency of -63.6 dB at the bath temperature around 4.6 K compared to a mixer coupled with a log-periodic antenna (LPA) of only a maximal harmonic number of 46 with the conversion efficiency of -71.6 dB. The mixer coupled with the BLMA has a higher order harmonic mixing with a lower local oscillator (LO) power of 1.26 dBm, which further illustrates its superiority to that coupled with a LPA with the LO power of 5.59 dBm. The experiment verifies the merits of the JJ harmonic mixer operating at zero bias as a promising device in terahertz regions.
Abstract This paper presents a wideband terahertz (THz) mixer based on a thin-film antenna-coupled high-temperature superconducting (HTS) YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−x (YBCO) step-edge Josephson junction. The HTS mixer enables the flexible harmonic mixing operation at multiple THz bands with the same microwave local oscillator (LO) source, and features very wide intermediate-frequency or instantaneous bandwidth. In order to optimize the frequency down-conversion performance of the mixer, systematic electromagnetic design and analysis have been carried out to improve the power coupling of THz radiation as well as wideband transmission of microwave signals. Experimental characterization of a fabricated device prototype has demonstrated that the mixer exhibits good performance at both the 200 GHz and 600 GHz bands. Detailed measurement results including the DC characteristics, LO pumping requirement, frequency response, mixing linearity and conversion gain are presented in this paper.
Josephson cantilevers, based on high temperature superconducting Josephson junctions, are versatile detectors for the measurement of frequency and power of microwave and terahertz radiation. A Josephson cantilever consists of at least one Josephson junction, which is equipped with an antenna structure for better coupling. The Josephson junctions, made from the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7, are deployed on LaAIO3or MgO bicrystal substrates. Four feedlines are used to carry out four-terminal sensing. The THz microscope was developed, to allow three dimensional measurements [1]. In this measurement setup, the Josephson cantilever is mounted on a 15 × 15 × 15 mm3positioning system inside a vacuum chamber. The Josephson cantilever is cooled by a cryocooler that allows operating temperatures down to 30 K. A triangular current is injected into the junction and the current-voltage characteristic is recorded at each spatial point. The frequency and the power of the external radiation can be determined from the recorded data by evaluating the occurring Shapiro steps using Hilbert spectroscopy [2]. When the Josephson cantilever is irradiated with more than one frequency at a time, it behaves as a frequency mixer, due to its nonlinear current-voltage characteristic. In this work, we investigated the mixing of 40 GHz and 762 GHz signals with the THz microscope.