Reduced noise temperatures of a THz NbN Hot Electron Bolometer Mixer
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. Laauwen (SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research)
D. Ren (TU Delft - ImPhys/Adam group)
J.R. Gao (SRON–Netherlands Institute for Space Research, TU Delft - ImPhys/Adam group)
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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.