Fabrication of a diffusion cooled superconducting hot electron bolometer for THz mixing applications

Author

Bumble, B. ; LeDuc, H.G.

Author_Institution

Center for Space Microelectron. Technol., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

7

Issue

2

fYear

1997

fDate

6/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3560

Lastpage

3563

Abstract

Recent interest in bolometers for heterodyne mixing applications has prompted development of microbridges which are small enough to allow electron diffusion to dominate over electron-phonon interaction as a cooling mechanism. Prior results at 533 GHz have demonstrated several GHz intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth. Here we describe our processing method in which the bolometer element is a 10 nm thin film of niobium defined by electron beam lithography down to dimensions of 80 nm. This microbridge is embedded in a normal metal (Au) antenna structure for 1.2 and 2.5 THz applications.

Keywords

bolometers; dipole antennas; electron beam lithography; hot carriers; niobium; slot antennas; submillimetre wave antennas; submillimetre wave mixers; submillimetre wave receivers; superconducting device testing; superconducting microbridges; superconducting microwave devices; 1.2 THz; 10 nm; 2.5 THz; 80 nm; Au; Au antenna structure; IF bandwidth; Nb; Nb thin film; THz mixing applications; bolometer element; diffusion cooled superconducting hot electron bolometer; dipole antennas; electron beam lithography; electron diffusion; heterodyne mixing; microbridges; processing method; slot antennas; Bandwidth; Bolometers; Charge carrier processes; Cooling; Electron beams; Fabrication; Frequency; Lithography; Niobium; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1051-8223

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/77.622167

Filename

622167