Comparison of the performance of a 0.5-THz Nb and NbN superconducting SIS mixer

Author

Li, Jing ; Takeda, Masanori ; Wang, Zhen ; Shi, Sheng-Cai

Author_Institution

Purple Mountain Obs., Chinese Acad. of Sci., Nanjing, China

fYear

2009

fDate

7-10 Dec. 2009

Firstpage

175

Lastpage

178

Abstract

In THz regime, NbN Superconductor - Insulator - Superconductor (SIS) mixers are potentially applicable to astronomy and atmospheric research. We have developed a 0.5-THz waveguide SIS mixer incorporating twin NbN/AlN/NbN junctions and NbN/MgO/NbN tuning circuit. In this paper, we compare it with a 0.5-THz Nb SIS mixer, which has been successfully used on POST telescope. The design and fabrication parameters of the two mixers are introduced, and the noise temperatures are measured. In addition, the direct detection performance is analyzed, such as the shot noise, the current responsivity and the noise equivalent power. The detailed results are presented.

Keywords

aluminium compounds; circuit tuning; magnesium compounds; niobium; niobium compounds; shot noise; submillimetre wave mixers; superconductor-insulator-superconductor mixers; telescopes; terahertz wave devices; waveguides; Nb; NbN-AlN-NbN; NbN-MgO-NbN; POST telescope; current responsivity; frequency 0.5 THz; noise equivalent power; noise temperatures; shot noise; superconductor-insulator -superconductor mixers; tuning circuit; twin junctions; waveguide SIS mixer; Astronomy; Atmospheric waves; Circuit noise; Insulation; Josephson junctions; Niobium; Superconducting device noise; Superconducting devices; Temperature measurement; Waveguide junctions; Nb; NbN; SIS mixer; THz; direct detect; heterodyne;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference, 2009. APMC 2009. Asia Pacific

Conference_Location

Singapore

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2801-4

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2802-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/APMC.2009.5385402

Filename

5385402