Development of SIS mixers for 1 THz

Jonas Zmuidzinas; Jacob W. Kooi; Jonathan Kawamura; Goutam Chattopadhyay; Bruce Bumble; Henry G. LeDuc; Jeffry A. Stern

doi:10.1117/12.317386

31 July 1998 Development of SIS mixers for 1 THz

Jonas Zmuidzinas, Jacob W. Kooi, Jonathan Kawamura, Goutam Chattopadhyay, Bruce Bumble, Henry G. LeDuc, Jeffry A. Stern

Proceedings Volume 3357, Advanced Technology MMW, Radio, and Terahertz Telescopes; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.317386
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 1998, Kona, HI, United States

Abstract

SIS heterodyne mixer technology based on niobium tunnel junctions has now been pushed to frequencies over 1 THz, clearly demonstrating that the SIS junctions are capable of mixing at frequencies up to twice the energy gap frequency (4(Delta) /h). However, the performance degrades rapidly above the gap frequency of niobium (2(Delta) /h approximately equals 700 GHz) due to substantial ohmic losses in the on-chip tuning circuit. To solve this problem, the tuning circuit should be fabricated using a superconducting film with a larger energy gap, such as NbN; unfortunately, NbN films often have a substantial excess surface resistance in the submillimeter band. In contrast, the SIS mixer measurements we present in this paper indicate that the losses for NbTiN thin films can be quite low.

Citation Download Citation

Jonas Zmuidzinas, Jacob W. Kooi, Jonathan Kawamura, Goutam Chattopadhyay, Bruce Bumble, Henry G. LeDuc, and Jeffry A. Stern "Development of SIS mixers for 1 THz", Proc. SPIE 3357, Advanced Technology MMW, Radio, and Terahertz Telescopes, (31 July 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.317386

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