| 1. |
- Il'in, K.S., et al.
(författare)
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Picosecond hot-electron energy relaxation in NbN superconducting photodetectors
- 2000
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Ingår i: Applied Physics Letters. - : AIP Publishing. - 0003-6951 .- 1077-3118. ; 76:19, s. 2752-2754
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report time-resolved characterization of superconducting NbN hot-electron photodetectors using an electro-optic sampling method. Our samples were patterned into micron-size microbridges from 3.5-nm-thick NbN films deposited on sapphire substrates. The devices were illuminated with 100 fs optical pulses, and the photoresponse was measured in the ambient temperature range between 2.15 and 10.6 K (superconducting temperature transition TC). The experimental data agreed very well with the nonequilibrium hot-electron, two-temperature model. The quasiparticle thermalization time was ambient temperature independent and was measured to be 6.5 ps. The inelastic electron–phonon scattering time τe–ph tended to decrease with the temperature increase, although its change remained within the experimental error, while the phonon escape time τes decreased almost by a factor of two when the sample was put in direct contact with superfluid helium. Specifically, τe–ph and τes, fitted by the two-temperature model, were equal to 11.6 and 21 ps at 2.15 K, and 10(±2) and 38 ps at 10.5 K, respectively. The obtained value of τe–ph shows that the maximum intermediate frequency bandwidth of NbN hot-electron phonon-cooled mixers operating at TC can reach 16(+4/−3) GHz if one eliminates the bolometric phonon-heating effect.
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| 2. |
- Kawamura, J., et al.
(författare)
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Low noise NbN lattice-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometric mixers at submillimeter wavelengths
- 1997
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Ingår i: Applied Physics Letters. - : AIP Publishing. - 0003-6951 .- 1077-3118. ; 70:12, s. 1619-1621
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lattice-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometric mixers are used in a submillimeter-wave waveguide heterodyne receiver. The mixer elements are niobium nitride film with 3.5 nm thickness and ∼ 10 μm2 area. The local oscillator power for optimal performance is estimated to be 0.5 μW, and the instantaneous bandwidth is 2.2 GHz. At an intermediate frequency centered at 1.4 GHz with 200 MHz bandwidth, the double sideband receiver noise temperature is 410 K at 430 GHz. The receiver has been used to detect molecular line emission in a laboratory gas cell.
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| 3. |
- Svechnikov, S., et al.
(författare)
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Spiral antenna nbn hot-electron bolometer mixer at submm requencies
- 1997
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 1558-2515 .- 1051-8223. ; 7:2, s. 3395-3398
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We have studied the phonon-cooled hot-electron bolometer (HEB) as a quasioptical mixer based on a spiral antenna designed for the 0.3-1 THz frequency band and fabricated on sapphire and high resistivity silicon substrates. HEB devices were produced from superconducting 3.5-5 nm thick NbN films with a critical temperature 10-12 K and a critical current density of approximately 10/sup 7/ A/cm/sup 2/ at 4.2 K. For these devices we reached a DSB receiver noise temperature below 1500 K, a total conversion loss of L/sub t/=16 dB in the 500-700 GHz frequency range, an IF bandwidth of 3-4 GHz and an optimal LO absorbed power of /spl sime/4 /spl mu/W. We experimentally analyzed various contributions to the conversion loss and obtained an RF coupling factor of about 5 dB, internal mixer loss of 10 dB and IF mismatch of 1 dB.
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