Noise performance of quasioptical ultrathin NbN hot-electron bolometer mixer at 2.5 and 3.8 THz

Author

Antipov, S.V. ; Vachtornin, Yu.B. ; Maslennikov, S.N. ; Smirnov, K.V. ; Kaurova, N.S. ; Grishina, E.V. ; Voronov, B.M. ; Goltsman, G.N.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Moscow State Pedagogical Univ., Russia

Volume

2

fYear

2004

Firstpage

592

Abstract

To put space-based and airborne heterodyne instruments into operation at frequencies above 1 THz the superconducting NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) will be incorporated into heterodyne receiver as a mixer. At frequencies above 1.3 THz the sensitivity of the NbN HEB mixers outperform the one of the Schottky diodes and SIS-mixers, and the receiver noise temperature of the NbN HEB mixers increase with frequency. In this paper we present the results of the noise temperature measurements within one batch of NbN HEB mixers based on 3.5 mn thick superconducting NbN film grown on Si substrate with MgO buffer layer at the LO frequencies 2.5 THz and 3.8 THz.

Keywords

bolometers; contact resistance; heterodyne detection; niobium compounds; submillimetre wave mixers; submillimetre wave receivers; superconducting device noise; superconducting mixers; superconducting thin films; 2.5 THz; 3.8 THz; contact resistance; heterodyne instruments; heterodyne receiver; hot-electron bolometer mixer; noise temperature; ohmic contact formation; quasioptical mixer; superconducting film; terahertz high-resolution spectroscopy; ultrathin film; Bolometers; Frequency; Instruments; Schottky diodes; Semiconductor films; Superconducting device noise; Superconducting epitaxial layers; Superconducting films; Temperature measurement; Temperature sensors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Physics and Engineering of Microwaves, Millimeter, and Submillimeter Waves, 2004. MSMW 04. The Fifth International Kharkov Symposium on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8411-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MSMW.2004.1346031

Filename

1346031