2000 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Volume 48 Number 4, April 2000

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

Superconductive Hot-Electron-Bolometer Mixer Receiver for 800-GHz Operation

Jonathan Kawamura, Raymond Blundell, C.-Y. Edward Tong, Member, IEEE D. Cosmo Papa, Todd R. Hunter, Scott N. Paine, Member, IEEE Ferdinand Patt, Gregory Gol'tsman, Sergei Cherednichenko, Boris Voronov and Eugene Gershenzon

Page 683.

Abstract:

In this paper, we describe a superconductive hot-electron-bolometer mixer receiver designed to operate in the partially transmissive 350-µm atmospheric window. The receiver employs an NbN thin-film microbridge as the mixer element, in which the main cooling mechanism of the hot electrons is through electron-phonon interaction. At a local-oscillator frequency of 808 GHz, the measured double-sideband receiver noise temperature is TRX = 970 K, across a 1-GHz intermediate-frequency bandwidth centered at 1.8 GHz. We have measured the linearity of the receiver and the amount of local-oscillator power incident on the mixer for optimal operation, which is PLO 1 µW. This receiver was used in making observations as a facility instrument at the Heinrich Hertz Telescope, Mt. Graham, AZ, during the 1998-1999 winter observing season.

References

  1. J. Carlstrom and J. Zmuidzinas, "Millimeter and submillimeter techniques,"in Review of Radio Science 1993-1996, W. R. Stone, Ed. London: U.K.: Oxford Univ. Press, 1996, pp.  839-882. 
  2. Y. Uzawa, Z. Wang and A. Kawakami, "Terahertz NbN/AlN/NbN mixers with Al/SiO/NbN microstrip tuning circuits", Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 73, pp.  680-682, 1998.
  3. J. Zmuidzinas, J. Kooi, J. Kawamura, G. Chattopadhyay, B. Bumble, H. G. LeDuc, and J. A. Stern, "Development of SIS mixers for 1 THz,"in Proc. SPIE-Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. , T. G. Phillips, Ed. 1998,vol. 3357, pp.  53-62. 
  4. E. M. Gershenzon, G. N. Gol'tsman, I. G. Gogidze, Y. P. Gusev, A. I. Elant'ev, B. S. Karasik and A. D. Semenov, "Millimeter and submillimeter range mixer based on electronic heating of superconducting films in the resistive state", Sov. Phys.-Superconduct. , vol. 3, pp.  1582-1597, 1990.
  5. G. N. Gol'tsman, A. D. Semenov, Y. P. Gousev, M. A. Zorin, I. G. Gogidze, E. M. Gershenzon, P. T. Lang, W. J. Knott and K. F. Renk, "Sensitive picosecond NbN detector for radiation from millimeter wavelengths to visible light", Superconduct. Sci. Technol., vol. 4, pp.  453-456, 1991.
  6. D. Prober, "Superconducting terahertz mixer using a transition-edge microbolometer", Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 62, pp.  2119-2121, 1993.
  7. P. J. Burke, R. J. Schoelkopf, D. E. Prober, A. Skalare, W. R. McGrath, B. Bumble and H. G. LeDuc, "Length scaling of bandwidth and noise in hot-electron superconducting mixers", Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 68, pp.  3344-3346,  1996.
  8. H. Ekström, B. Karasik, E. Kollberg and K. S. Yngvesson, "Conversion gain and noise of niobium superconducting hot-electron mixers", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 43, pp.  938-947, Apr.  1995.
  9. D. W. Floet, E. Miedema, T. M. Klapwijk and J. R. Gao, "Hotspot mixing: A framework for heterodyne mixing in superconducting hot-electron bolometers", Appl. Phys. Lett. , vol. 74, pp.  433-435, 1999.
  10. J. Kawamura, R. Blundell, C.-Y. E. Tong, G. Gol'tsman, E. Gershenzon, B. Voronov and S. Cherednichenko, "Low noise NbN lattice-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometric mixers at submillimeter wavelengths", Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 70, pp.  1619-1621, 1997.
  11. P. Yagoubov, M. Kroug, H. Merkel, E. Kollberg, G. Gol'tsman, S. Svechnikov and E. Gershenzon, "Noise temperature and local oscillator power requirement of NbN phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixers at terahertz frequencies", Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 73, pp.  2814-2816, 1998.
  12. C.-Y. E. Tong, R. Blundell, D. C. Papa, M. Smith, J. Kawamura, G. Gol'tsman, E. Gershenzon and B. Voronov, "An all solid-state superconducting heterodyne receiver at terahertz frequencies", IEEE Microwave Guided Wave Lett., vol. 9, pp.  366-368, Sept.  1999.
  13. A. Skalure, W. R. McGrath, B. Bumble, H. G. LeDuc, P. J. Burke, A. A. Verheijen, R. J. Schoelkopf and D. E. Prober, "Large bandwidth and low noise in a diffusion-cooled hot-electron bolometer mixer", Appl. Phys. Lett. , vol. 68, pp.  1558-1560, 1996.
  14. A. Skalare, W. R. McGrath, B. Bumble and H. G. LeDuc, "Receiver measurements at 1267 GHz using a diffusion-cooled superconducting transition-edge bolometer", IEEE Trans. Appl. Superconduct., vol. 7, pp.  3568-3571, June  1997 .
  15. B. S. Karasik, M. C. Gaidis, W. R. McGrath, B. Bumble and H. G. LeDuc, "Low noise in a diffusion-cooled hot-electron mixer at 2.5 THz", Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 71, pp.  1567-1569, 1997.
  16. J. Kawamura, R. Blundell, C.-Y. E. Tong, G. Gol'tsman, E. Gershenzon and B. Voronov, "Performance of NbN lattice-cooled hot-electron bolometric mixers", J. Appl. Phys., vol. 80, pp.  4232-4234,  1996.
  17. J. Kawamura, R. Blundell, C.-Y. E. Tong, D. C. Papa, T. R. Hunter, G. Gol'tsman, S. Cherednichenko, B. Voronov and E. Gershenzon, "First light with an 800 GHz phononcooled HEB mixer receiver", in Proc. 9th Int. Space THz Technol. Symp., 1998, pp.  35-43. 
  18. J. W. M. Baars, R. N. Martin, J. G. Martin, J. G. Mangum, J. P. McMullin and W. L. Peters, "The Heinrich Hertz telescope and the submillimeter telescope observatory", Publ. Astronom. Soc. Pacific, vol. 111, pp.  627-646, 1999.
  19. J. Kawamura, C.-Y. E. Tong, R. Blundell, D. C. Papa, T. R. Hunter, G. Gol'tsman, S. Cherednichenko, B. Voronov and E. Gershenzon, "An 800-GHz NbN phononcooled hot-electron bolometer mixer receiver", IEEE Trans. Appl. Superconduct., vol. 9, pp.  3753-3756, June  1999.
  20. S. Cherednichenko, P. Yagoubov, K. Il'in, G. Gol'tsman and E. Gershenzon, "Large bandwidth of NbN phononcooled hot-electron bolometer mixers on sapphire substrates", in Proc. 8th Int. Space Terahertz Tech. Symp., 1997, pp.  245-257. 
  21. R. Blundell, C.-Y. E. Tong, D. C. Papa, R. L. Leombruno, X. Zhang, S. Paine, J. A. Stern, H. G. LeDuc and B. Bumble, "A wideband fixed-tuned SIS receiver for 200 GHz operation", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 43, pp.  933-937, Apr.  1995 .
  22. C.-Y. E. Tong, R. Blundell, S. Paine, D. C. Papa, J. Kawamura, X. Zhang, J. A. Stern and H. G. LeDuc, "Design and characterization of a 250-350-GHz fixed-tuned SIS receiver", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., pp.  1548-1556, Sept.   1996.
  23. J. Kawamura, T. R. Hunter , C.-Y. E. Tong, R. Blundell, Q. Zhang, C. A. Katz, D. C. Papa, and T. K. Sridharan, "First image with the FfA superconductive HEB receiver: The protostellar outflow from IRAS 20126+4104 in CO (J=7-6)", Publ. Astronom. Soc. Pacific, vol. 111, pp. 1088-1094, 1999.