Low noise NbN hot electron bolometer mixer at 4.3?THz

We have studied the sensitivity of a superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer mixer integrated with a spiral antenna at 4.3?THz. Using hot/cold blackbody loads and a beam splitter all in vacuum, we measured a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 1300?K at the optimum local oscillator (LO) power of 330?nW, which is about 12 times the...

Niobium titanium nitride-based superconductor-insulator-superconductor mixers for low-noise terahertz receivers

Integrating NbTiN-based microstrip tuning circuits with traditional Nb superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) junctions enables the low-noise operation regime of SIS mixers to be extended from below 0.7?to?1.15?THz. In particular, mixers incorporating a NbTiN/SiO2/NbTiN microstrip tuning circuit offer low-noise performance below 0.8–0.85...