Effect of microwave radiation on the stability of terahertz hot-electron bolometer mixers

Sergey Ryabchun; Cheuk-yu Edward Tong; Raymond Blundell; Robert Kimberk; Gregory Gol'tsman

doi:10.1117/12.686291

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17 October 2006 Effect of microwave radiation on the stability of terahertz hot-electron bolometer mixers

Sergey Ryabchun, Cheuk-yu Edward Tong, Raymond Blundell, Robert Kimberk, Gregory Gol'tsman

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Proceedings Volume 6373, Terahertz Physics, Devices, and Systems; 63730J (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.686291
Event: Optics East 2006, 2006, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Abstract

We report our studies of the effect of microwave radiation, with a frequency much lower than that corresponding to the energy gap of the superconductor, on the performance of the NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixer incorporated into a THz heterodyne receiver. It is shown that exposing the HEB mixer to microwave radiation does not result in a significant rise of the receiver noise temperature and degradation of the mixer conversion gain so long as the level of microwave power is small compared to the local oscillator drive. Hence the injection of a small, but controlled amount of microwave radiation enables active compensation of local oscillator power and coupling fluctuations which can significantly degrade the stability of HEB mixer receivers.

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Sergey Ryabchun, Cheuk-yu Edward Tong, Raymond Blundell, Robert Kimberk, and Gregory Gol'tsman "Effect of microwave radiation on the stability of terahertz hot-electron bolometer mixers", Proc. SPIE 6373, Terahertz Physics, Devices, and Systems, 63730J (17 October 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.686291

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