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A low-noise 2.7 THz waveguide based superconducting mixer

Faouzi M. Boussaha, Kawamura Jonathan, J. A. Stern, Skalare Anders, White Victor

Published Jan 1, 2012• 0 citations
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Abstract

We report on a low noise waveguide-based heterodyne mixer utilizing a superconductiang NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) operating near 2.7 THz. The mixer is an NbN nano-bridge integrated with a gold bowtie planar antenna on an ultra-thin siliconsubstrateof 23 mthickness.Toproducethewaveguide embedding circuit for use at such a high frequency, we adopted a novel approach combining UV-lithography and micro-plating techniques. The mixer response agreed precisely with model predictions, and we measured a minimum uncorrected DSB receiver noise temperature of 965 K at an LO frequency of 2.74 THz.

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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity•Jun 1, 2007•28 citations
We report on a low noise waveguide-based heterodyne mixer utilizing a superconductiang NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) operating near 2.7 THz. The mixer is an NbN nano-bridge integrated with a gold bowtie planar antenna on an ultra-thin siliconsubstrateof 23 mthickness.Toproducethewaveguide embedding circuit for use at such a high frequency, we adopted a novel approach combining UV-lithography and micro-plating techniques. The mixer response agreed precisely with model predictions, and we measured a minimum uncorrected DSB receiver noise temperature of 965 K at an LO frequency of 2.74 THz.
We report on a low noise waveguide-based heterodyne mixer utilizing a superconductiang NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) operating near 2.7 THz. The mixer is an NbN nano-bridge integrated with a gold bowtie planar antenna on an ultra-thin silicon substrate of ~ 2-3 μm thickness. To produce the waveguide embedding circuit for use at such a high frequency, we adopted a novel approach combining UV-lithography and micro-plating techniques. The mixer response agreed precisely with model predictions, and we measured a minimum uncorrected DSB receiver noise temperature of 965 K at an LO frequency of 2.74 THz.
We report on the development of a waveguide-based balanced superconducting mixer for operation near 2.7 THz. The mixer employs a pair of NbN hot-electron bolometers defined on 6 μm-thick silicon substrate that follows a 90°hybrid coupler. To produce the critical structures of the coupler and waveguide embedding circuit, we have utilized silicon micromachining techniques based on deep reactive ion etching. Operating near 4.2 K bath temperature, we have measured a minimum uncorrected DSB receiver noise temperature of less than 2000 K using Callen-Welton formula and local oscillator sideband noise rejection better than 13±3 dB at 2.74 THz. The concept is suitable for building arrays, readily scalable for higher frequencies up 5 THz, and could accommodate other mixer technologies, such as room-temperature Schottky diode mixers.
Superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers at terahertz (THz) have been designed, fabricated and measured for applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixer consists of a planar antenna and an NbN bridge connecting across the antenna's inner terminals on high-resistivity Si substrates. Double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures of 698 K at 0.65 THz, 904 K at 1.6 THz, 1026 K at 2.5 THz and 1386 K at 3.1 THz have been obtained at 4.2 K without corrections and using changeable input local oscillation (LO) power to eliminate the affects of direct detection and instability of the LO power. The excess quantum noise factor beta of about 4 has been estimated using a quantum noise model.
Low noise receivers using quasi-optical superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have been designed, fabricated and measured in the terahertz (THz) frequency range for THz applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixers consist of a planar complementary antenna and several nanometer (nm) thick NbN bridge connecting across the antenna's inner terminals on high-resistivity Si substrates. A double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature of 664 K at 0.76 THz, 920 K at 1.6 THz, 1630 K at 2.5 THz and 1710 K at 3.1 THz has been obtained without corrections and no anti-reflection (AR) coating on the surface of the lens.
Low noise terahertz (THz) receivers based on superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have been designed, fabricated and measured for applications in astronomy and cosmology. The NbN HEB mixer consists of a planar antenna and an NbN bridge connecting across the antenna's inner terminals on a high-resistivity Si substrate. To eliminate the influence of direct detection and instability of the local oscillation (LO) power, a wire grid has been used to change the input LO power for compensating the shift of bias current during Y-factor measurement. The double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures at 4.2K without corrections have been measured from 0.65 to 3.1THz. The excess quantum noise factor β of about 4 has been obtained, which agrees well with the calculated value. Allan variance of the HEB has been characterized, and Allan time TA longer than 0.4s is obtained. We also estimated the temperature resolution of the HEB from the Allan variance and obtained the minimum temperature resolution of 1.1K using a Gunn oscillator with its multipliers at 0.65THz as an LO source.
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.