Reduced noise temperatures of a THz NbN Hot Electron Bolometer Mixer

Journal Article (2025)
Author(s)

B. Mirzaei (TU Delft - ImPhys/Optics)

J. R. Silva (SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)

W. J. Vreeling (SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)

W.M. Laauwen (SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)

D. Ren (TU Delft - ImPhys/Adam group)

JR Gao (SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research, TU Delft - ImPhys/Adam group)

Research Group
ImPhys/Adam group
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1109/TTHZ.2024.3475010
More Info
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Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Research Group
ImPhys/Adam group
Bibliographical Note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.@en
Issue number
1
Volume number
15
Pages (from-to)
91-99
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Abstract

We measured the double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature (TrecDSB) of an NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer at three local oscillator frequencies of 1.6, 2.5, and 5.3 THz. The HEB has cleaned contact interfaces with a 200 nm thick Au layer. The measuredTrecDSB values are 530 ± 11 K, 640 ±18 K, and 2190 ±150 K at 1.6, 2.5, and 5.3 THz, respectively, using an air setup with total optical losses of 2.60 ± 0.04, 2.63 ± 0.16, and 4.70 ± 0.24 dB, respectively. We derived low mixer noise temperatures (TmixerDSB) of 240 ± 6 K at 1.6 THz and 290 ± 13 K at 2.5 THz, achieving over 30% improvement compared to published NbN HEB mixers. This enhancement can reduce the integration time of a heterodyne instrument by roughly a factor of 2. At 5.3 THz,TmixerDSB is 620 ± 55 K, showing limited improvement due to non-optimized antenna geometry. These results also contribute to understanding the device physics of a wide HEB (4 μm) at high frequencies.

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