A heterodyne receiver at 533 GHz using a diffusion-cooled superconducting hot electron bolometer mixer

Author

Skalare, A. ; McGrath, W.R. ; Bumble, B. ; LeDuc, H.G. ; Burke, P.J. ; Verheijen, A.A. ; Prober, D.E.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

5

Issue

2

fYear

1995

fDate

6/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2236

Lastpage

2239

Abstract

This paper describes heterodyne measurements at 533 GHz using a novel superconducting hot electron bolometer in a waveguide mixer block. The bolometer is a thin (10 nm) and narrow (0.1 /spl mu/m) strip of niobium with a length of less than half a micron and a critical temperature of approximately 5.5 K. The short length ensures that diffusion dominates over electron-phonon interaction as a cooling mechanism for the hot electrons, thus allowing heterodyne detection with intermediate frequencies of several GHz. A Y-factor response of 1.15 dB has been obtained at an intermediate frequency of 1.4 GHz with hot/cold load temperatures of approximately 295/77 K, indicating a receiver noise temperature around 650 K DSB. The IF response extends up to at least 2 GHz and possibly higher.<>

Keywords

bolometers; hot carriers; niobium; submillimetre wave mixers; submillimetre wave receivers; superconducting device noise; superconducting microbridges; superconducting microwave devices; 1.4 to 2 GHz; 5.5 K; 533 GHz; IF response; Nb microbridge; Nb-Au; Y-factor response; critical temperature; diffusion-cooled superconducting hot electron bolometer mixer; electron-phonon interaction; heterodyne detection; heterodyne receiver; hot electron cooling mechanism; hot/cold load temperatures; local oscillator frequency; receiver noise temperature; transition edge bolometer mixer; waveguide mixer block; Bolometers; Electrons; Extraterrestrial measurements; Frequency; Josephson junctions; Niobium; Space technology; Superconducting devices; Superconducting films; Superconducting microwave devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1051-8223

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/77.403030

Filename

403030