We report on low noise terahertz bolometric mixers made of MgB 2 superconducting thin films. For a 10-nm-thick MgB 2 film, the lowest mixer noise temperature was 600 K at 600 GHz. For 30 to 10-nm-thick films, the mixer gain bandwidth is an inverse function of the film thickness, reaching 3.4 GHz for the 10-nm film. As the critical temperature of the film decreases, the gain bandwidth also decreases, indicating the importance of high quality thin films for large gain bandwidth mixers. The results indicate the prospect of achieving a mixer gain bandwidth as large as 10-8 GHz for 3 to 5-nm-thick MgB 2 films. Superconducting NbN hot-electron bolometer (HEB) 1 mixers are widely used for high resolution terahertz radio astronomy. 2 Such mixers have superior performance over other types of mixers (e.g., SIS, Schottky diodes) 2 at frequencies higher than 1.2 THz. 3-5 A large RF bandwidth, a low noise temperature, and low LO power requirements determined the choice of NbN HEB mixers for the Herschel space observatory. 6,7 In contrast to SIS mixers, the useful IF bandwidth of NbN HEB mixers is practically limited to 3-5 GHz, 8 as the noise temperature rises drastically at higher intermediate frequencies. The reason for this is that the HEB mixer gain rolls off as the IF exceeds the mixer's 3 dB gain bandwidth (GBW). The GBW is determined by two consequent processes in the electron energy relaxation: the electron-phonon interaction and the phonon energy relaxation. The second process mainly occurs via acoustic phonon escape into the substrate. The electron-phonon interaction time is usually a function of the temperature. For HEB mixers, the relevant electron temperature is the critical temperature of the superconducting film, T c , to which the electrons are heated by a combination of the LO power and the dc bias current. In NbN thin films, the electron-phonon interaction time is approximately s e-ph % 12 ps at 10 K. 9,10 The phonon escape time is on the order of s esc % 40 ps for NbN films as thin as 3-4 nm. 8
A noise bandwidth (NBW) of 6-7 GHz was obtained for hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers made of 10 nm MgB films. A systematic investigation of the (IF) gain bandwidth as a function of the MgB film thickness (30, 15, and 10 nm) is also presented. The gain bandwidth (GBW) of 3.4 GHz was measured for a 10 nm film, corresponding to a mixer time constant of 47 ps. For 10 nm films a reduction of the GBW was observed with the reduction of the critical temperature . Experimental data were analyzed using the two-temperature model. From the theoretical analysis, the electron-phonon time -, the phonon escape time and the electron and phonon specific heats were extrapolated giving the first model for HEB mixers of MgB films.
A high sensitivity broadband terahertz direct detector based on YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 high-Tc superconductor microbolometers is presented. At 77 K, the responsivity of the spiral antenna-integrated microbolometers (1.5 μm x 1.5 μm) is 190 V/W, referenced to the input of the silicon substrate lens, across the frequency range of 330 GHz to 1.63 THz in a single device. The response time is approximately 300 ps. Using a room temperature readout, we measure an optical noise equivalent power (NEP) of 20 pW/Hz 1/2 (readout noise limited) for modulation frequencies ranging from 500 Hz to 100 kHz.
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