Phase locking and spectral linewidth of a two-mode terahertz quantum cascade laser

We have studied the phase locking and spectral linewidth of an ? 2.7?THz quantum cascade laser by mixing its two lateral lasing modes. The beat signal at about 8?GHz is compared with a microwave reference by applying conventional phase lock loop circuitry with feedback to the laser bias current. Phase locking has been demonstrated, resulting in...

Beam patterns of terahertz quantum cascade lasers with subwavelength cavity dimensions

The need to reach single-mode lasing and minimize at the same time the electrical dissipation of cryogenically operated terahertz quantum cascade lasers may result in small and subwavelength cavity dimensions. To assess the influence of such dimensions on the shape of the laser emission, we have measured the beam pattern of two metal-metal...

Reduced noise in NbN hot-electron bolometer mixers by annealing

Antenna model for wire lasers

Current-induced vortex unbinding in bolometer mixers

We present a description of the current-voltage characteristics of hot electron bolometers in terms of the current-dependent intrinsic resistive transition of NbN films. We find that, by including this current dependence, we can correctly predict the complete current-voltage characteristics, showing excellent agreement with measurements for both...

Terahertz heterodyne receiver based on a quantum cascade laser and a superconducting bolometer

We report the first demonstration of an all solid-state heterodyne receiver that can be used for high-resolution spectroscopy above 2?THz suitable for space-based observatories. The receiver uses a NbN superconducting hot-electron bolometer as mixer and a quantum cascade laser operating at 2.8?THz as local oscillator. We measure a double...

Direct detection effect in small volume hot electron bolometer mixers

We measure the direct detection effect in a small volume (0.15??m×1??m×3.5?nm) quasioptical NbN phonon cooled hot electron bolometer mixer at 1.6?THz. We find that the small signal sensitivity of the receiver is underestimated by 35% due to the direct detection effect and that the optimal operating point is shifted to higher bias voltages when...

Doubling of sensitivity and bandwidth in phonon cooled hot electron bolometer mixers

NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers are at this moment the best heterodyne detectors for frequencies above 1 THz. However, the fabrication procedure of these devices is such that the quality of the interface between the NbN superconducting film and the contact structure is not under good control. This results in a contact resistance between...

Improved superconducting hot-electron bolometer devices for the THz range

Improved and reproducible heterodyne mixing (noise temperatures of 950 K at 2.5 THz) has been realized with NbN based hot-electron superconducting devices with low contact resistances. A distributed temperature numerical model of the NbN bridge, based on a local electron and a phonon temperature, has been used to understand the physical...

Doubling of sensitivity and bandwidth in phonon cooled hot electron bolometer mixers

We demonstrate that the performance of NbN lattice cooled hot electron bolometer mixers depends strongly on the interface quality between the bolometer and the contact structure. We show experimentally that both the receiver noise temperature and the gain bandwidth can be improved by more than a factor of 2 by cleaning the interface and adding...

Study on mechanism for water pricing

Water resources contribute greatly to human well being, both directly and indirectly. Water resources are irreplaceable natural resources, and are limited. However, due to a growing population and related economic development, the water demand from urban, industry and agriculture has increased dramatically. Water shortage has become one of the...

Thermal time constant of Nb diffusion-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixers

Nb superconducting hot electron bolometer mixers coupled with microstrip lines

Superconducting transition metal nitride films for THz SIS mixers

Lateral-superlattice effect on weak localization in silicon inversion layers

Quantum interference and confinement effects in narrow channel Si-MOSFET's

One-dimensional subband effects in the conductance of multiple quantum wires in Si metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors