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Development of Advanced Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor Mixers for Terahertz Radio Astronomy

Kirill I. Rudakov

Published Jun 25, 2021• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Cosmic dust, cold matter and many other objects at far space have many spectral lines at the THz frequency range, leading to a rich information spectrum for astronomical observations. Ordinarily, these detected sub-mm signals from space are weak, and consequently very sensitive detectors are required to reduce the minimal time of the measurements with the desired accuracy. The main focus of this work is the design and development of superconducting high-frequency waveguide receivers at 211-275 GHz, 600-720 GHz and 780-950 GHz frequency ranges, in addition to superconducting planar integrated circuits matched with a planar Flux-Flow-Oscillator. This work is bridging the calculation methods applied for the design on one hand and the development of experimental instruments on the other.

DOI
10.33612/diss.174103493

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Cosmic dust, cold matter and many other objects at far space have many spectral lines at the THz frequency range, leading to a rich information spectrum for astronomical observations. Ordinarily, these detected sub-mm signals from space are weak, and consequently very sensitive detectors are required to reduce the minimal time of the measurements with the desired accuracy. The main focus of this work is the design and development of superconducting high-frequency waveguide receivers at 211-275 GHz, 600-720 GHz and 780-950 GHz frequency ranges, in addition to superconducting planar integrated circuits matched with a planar Flux-Flow-Oscillator. This work is bridging the calculation methods applied for the design on one hand and the development of experimental instruments on the other.
The terahertz regime, as a last radio window, remains to be fully explored, and astronomical and atmospheric observations in this regime are scientifically important. Like other frequency regimes, developing high-sensitivity detectors (coherent and incoherent) is of particular significance for both ground-based and space-borne facilities. As the coherent detector of choice below 1.4 THz, superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) heterodyne mixers have achieved as high a sensitivity as five times the quantum limit around 1.4 THz. It is, however, still a challenge to developing SIS mixers at frequencies beyond 1.4 THz with considerable transmission loss in superconducting circuits due to the Cooper-pair breaking by energetic photons and increased many difficulties in designing and fabricating. So far, superconducting hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have been the most sensitive heterodyne detectors at frequencies above 1.5 THz, and successfully used to detect molecular spectral lines up to 2.5 THz from ground-based and space telescopes. Although spiral-antenna coupled NbN HEB mixers show a good sensitivity in the whole THz frequency range, the directly measured spectral response with Fourier transform spectrometer falls quickly as frequency increases, especially above 3 THz. The terahertz band is also of particular importance to observe astronomical objects such as cosmic microwave background, early distant objects, cold objects and dusty objects. Aiming at such objects, we develop a terahertz imaging array system by combining advanced superconducting detectors such as transition edge sensor (TES) and microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs), thus the system has a frequency band centred at 350 m, an operational temperature of 0.3 K, and a sensitivity reaching background limit performance for ground-based applications. In addition, it is expected to have some breakthroughs in ultra-sensitive superconducting TES and MKID, low noise multi-channel readout and multiplexing, efficient terahertz-wave coupling technology, and large-scale array system integration. The developed terahertz imaging array system will serve as the next-generation instrument of Dome A 5 m terahertz telescope, conducting a 350 m-band legacy survey for studying the planets, stars, galaxies and cosmology. Besides the application in astronomy, the developed terahertz imaging array system can also be applied to some areas requiring rapid detection such as security, deep space exploration, and biomedical imaging. In this paper, we mainly introduce the superconducting detectors developed at Purple Mountain Observatory and those for international collaborative projects.
We report on research in the field of low-noise receiving systems in the sub-terahertz (THz) range, carried out in recent years, aimed at developing receivers with quantum sensitivity for implementation in space and ground-based radio telescopes. Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixers based on high-quality tunnel junctions are the key elements of the most sensitive sub-THz heterodyne receivers. Motivations and physical background for technology improvement and optimization, as well as fabrication details, are described. This article presents the results of the SIS receiver developments for the 211–275 GHz and 790–950 GHz frequency ranges with a noise temperature in the double sideband (DSB) mode of approximTELY 20 K and 200 K, respectively. These designs and achievements are implemented in the development of the receiving systems for the Russian Space Agency mission “Millimetron”, and for the ground-based APEX (Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment) telescope.
Abstract The developments in the field of low-noise receiving systems in the sub-THz range, performed at the Kotelnikov Institute of Radio Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences in recent years and aimed at the creation of receivers with quantum sensitivity for space and ground-based radio telescopes are presented. Superconductor–insulator–superconductor (SIS) mixers based on high-quality tunnel junctions are key elements of the most sensitive sub-THz heterodyne receivers. The article presents the results of the development of SIS receivers in the 211–275 GHz and 800–950 GHz ranges with a noise temperature in the double-sideband (DSB) mode of about 20 K and 220 K, respectively. These achievements will be used to develop receiving systems for APEX and LLMA ground-based telescopes, as well as for the Millimetron space mission.
This thesis presents the work done in the field of development of low noise instruments for radio astronomy applications, and addresses some of the key components in the receiver. Part of this thesis describes the design and development of a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) junction mixer covering RF frequencies from 163 to 211 GHz, reaching the quantum limited noise performance. The mixer uses an integrated approach, where an LO coupler and a resistive LO termination are fabricated on the same mixer chip.Another part of the thesis describes the work on the design and development of the Band 5 receiver cartridge for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) project. Details on the development of Band 5 receiver cartridge, sideband separation mixer, and a superconducting IF hybrid is presented.Additionally, this thesis presents first ever experimental demonstration of an SIS device as frequency multiplier, and presents successful off-chip detection of the multiplied signal. The experimental frequency multiplier was designed for the 182 to 192 GHz output frequency band, and uses an array of SIS junctions to boost the total output power. Dependence of multiplier output power on the DC bias voltage and pumping power are investigated. The measurements successfully confirm x2 multiplication, where extremely sharp multiplied signal was detected with no observable spurious signals. The SIS multiplier shows no deterioration of the linewidth of the original pumping signal.
This repost describes our results on development of low-noise heterodyne THz receivers for ground based and space radio astronomy. Superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers that employ high quality Nb-based tunnel junctions are the key element of the most sensitive heterodyne THz receivers. In particular we present here the SIS receivers for frequency range 211-275 GHz and 800-950 GHz with double sideband (DSB) noise temperature of about 25 K and 220 K, respectively. The latest results on development, fabrication techniques and experimental study of the SIS receivers will be discussed.
Abstract We have elaborated, fabricated and tested a THz source radiating to open space based on the superconducting flux-flow oscillator (FFO). In this concept, the oscillator is integrated with the transmitting lens antenna based on a slot structure in Nb film with a thickness of ~200 nm located on the same chip. The slot planar antenna is matched to the oscillator (by input) and to the semielliptical Si lens with a diameter of 10 mm (by output) providing a narrow output beam of THz emission. A harmonic mixer based on the superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction embedded in the “FFO and antenna” integrated structure has been used for the phase locking of the oscillator. Several designs of antenna coupled with the oscillator by microstrip lines have been numerically simulated, and the batches of experimental samples based on Nb-AlN-NbN superconducting trilayers with Rn ·A ~ 20 Ω·μm2 (jc ~ 10 kA/cm2) have been fabricated and tested. Two different setups were used for experimental study: a THz spectrometer based on the SIS receiver with a high spectral resolution (better than 0.1 MHz) and a Si bolometer. The overall operating range of 250 to 700 GHz is covered by all the developed designs.