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Chinese Science Bulletin

Harmonic Mixing at 90 GHz Using High-T_c Superconductor Josephson Junction

王华兵, 程其恒, 许伟伟, 吴培亨, 张思远, 张鸿才

Published Sep 15, 1993• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

1 Introduction Compared with its semiconductor counterpart, Josephson junction (J. J.) usually has larger nonlinearity, lower noise temperature, wider operating waveband and less microwave loss, thus making itself a good candidate for applications at submillimeter and far-infrared wavebands. Some harmonic mixing experiments were done previously using N_b point-contact junctions, with the highest signal frequency being about 4.25 THz and the largest harmonic number being 851. However, because of the requirement of liquid

DOI
10.1360/sb1993-38-17-1433

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1 Introduction Compared with its semiconductor counterpart, Josephson junction (J. J.) usually has larger nonlinearity, lower noise temperature, wider operating waveband and less microwave loss, thus making itself a good candidate for applications at submillimeter and far-infrared wavebands. Some harmonic mixing experiments were done previously using N_b point-contact junctions, with the highest signal frequency being about 4.25 THz and the largest harmonic number being 851. However, because of the requirement of liquid
Using a high Tc superconducting grain boundary Josephson junction, harmonic mixing experiments in the mm waveband were carried out, aiming at as large a harmonic number and as high a signal frequency as possible. The dependencies of intermediate frequency output on dc bias, harmonic number, frequency of local oscillator (LO), and other parameters were carefully studied. Until now, our best result was the mixing between the signal at 95 GHz and the 105th harmonic of LO at about 900 MHz. Preliminary experiments using a high Tc harmonic mixer and phase-locking loop were tried to stabilize the frequency of a mm wave source.
Using high-Tc Josephson junctions made of YBa2Cu3O7−δ deposited across MgO bicrystal boundary, at terahertz (THz) frequency band, we demonstrated both fundamental and harmonic mixing. Radiation from a far-infrared laser was coupled to the junction, which was integrated with a planar bow-tie antenna, via an extended hyperhemispherical silicon lens. Fundamental mixing manifested itself in the junction’s dc current–voltage (I–V) curve as a third Shapiro step in addition to those two induced by the THz laser lines from a slightly misaligned resonator. In harmonic mixing between a THz laser line and a microwave local oscillator, the highest harmonic number we could get was 490 with a signal-to-noise ratio of 9 dB at the intermediate frequency.
We experimentally investigate different mixing regi-mes in Nb/AlOx/Nb and Nb/AlN/NbN tunnel superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions. The SIS mixers were studied with regard to the following modes of operation: in an extremely low-frequency range (0.1-20 GHz) and as high harmonic mixers; n ≈ 20-30 at signal frequencies of about 500 GHz that requires high power of a local oscillator. The quasiparticle and Josephson mixing regimes have been compared. We demonstrate that, in some applications requiring high conversion efficiency, the Josephson regime can be more preferable than the quasiparticle regime due to a larger output signal and better signal-to-noise ratio. As an example of such an application, we consider the phase locking of a THz oscillator using a cryogenic harmonic phase detector, which only ought to realize all of its benefits under the Josephson mixing regime. In addition, we demonstrate that the presence of the Josephson effect results in considerable increase in conversion efficiency at the expense of the dynamic range decrease; it was measured for low-frequency up- and down-convertors, which are promising for cryogenic multiplexing systems.
Thin film niobium nitride Josephson tunnel junctions have been used as harmonic mixers in experiments to measure the frequency of various submillimetre wavelength laser lines. The Josephson junctions were used as harmonic mixers with an 18-40 GHz microwave synthesiser providing the local oscillator signal. Harmonics up to the 140th of ∼18 GHz, generated within the junction, mixed with optically pumped laser lines up to 2.5 THz to produce output signals around 20 MHz. Results of frequency measurements and data on the performance of the mixing system, including signal to noise ratios and frequency response, will be presented.
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.