Print Email Facebook Twitter Engineering Physics of Superconducting Hot-Electron Bolometer Mixers Title Engineering Physics of Superconducting Hot-Electron Bolometer Mixers Author Klapwijk, T.M. (TU Delft QN/Klapwijk Lab; Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft) Semenov, A. V. (Moscow State Pedagogical University) Date 2017-11-01 Abstract Superconducting hot-electron bolometers are presently the best performing mixing devices for the frequency range beyond 1.2 THz, where good-quality superconductor-insulator-superconductor devices do not exist. Their physical appearance is very simple: an antenna consisting of a normal metal, sometimes a normal-metal-superconductor bilayer, connected to a thin film of a narrow short superconductor with a high resistivity in the normal state. The device is brought into an optimal operating regime by applying a dc current and a certain amount of local-oscillator power. Despite this technological simplicity, its operation has found to be controlled by many different aspects of superconductivity, all occurring simultaneously. A core ingredient is the understanding that there are two sources of resistance in a superconductor: a charge-conversion resistance occurring at a normal-metal-superconductor interface and a resistance due to time-dependent changes of the superconducting phase. The latter is responsible for the actual mixing process in a nonuniform superconducting environment set up by the bias conditions and the geometry. The present understanding indicates that further improvement needs to be found in the use of other materials with a faster energy relaxation rate. Meanwhile, several empirical parameters have become physically meaningful indicators of the devices, which will facilitate the technological developments. Subject Astronomybolometerniobium compoundssubmillimeter wave devicessuperconducting photodetector To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fea4a6a2-3424-48eb-9b1f-f7e57e141926 DOI https://doi.org/10.1109/TTHZ.2017.2758267 ISSN 2156-342X Source IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, 7 (6), 627-648 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2017 T.M. Klapwijk, A. V. Semenov Files PDF KlapwijkSemenov2017.pdf 2.35 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:fea4a6a2-3424-48eb-9b1f-f7e57e141926/datastream/OBJ/view