Broadband GHz frequency characterizations of Permalloy nanorods’ array

The radio frequency characteristics of Permalloy nanorods’ array have been examined by coplanar waveguide (CPW) cell. The Permalloy nanorods’ array was grown in anodic aluminum oxide porous templates with a diameter of 20 nm. As the Permalloy nanorods’ array was placed on CPW, the characteristic impedances of the CPW were changed from 50 to at 1 GHz. The magnitude of inductance was decreased from 3 GHz and the capacitance was increased up to twice in comparison with that of CPW. The signal attenuations were abruptly increased over 1 GHz. The propagation wavelengths due to the insertion of Permalloy nanorods’ array were decreased about 30% at 1 GHz in comparison with that of CPW without magnetic materials.     

A 44 GHz HEMT amplifier

A 44-GHz amplifier using 0.25-m gate length and double-heterojunction structure HEMT devices is described. Higher gain and power performance have been obtained from the amplifier using this device at millimeter-wave frequencies. A spot gain of 9.4 dB and a 1-dB gain compression point of +7.5 dBm has been achieved at 43.5 GHz.This work was supported by the Air Force Space Division under Contract No. F04701-84-C-0113.     

A lownoise 665 GHz SIS quasi-particle waveguide receiver

We report recent results on a 565–690 GHz SIS heterodyne receiver employing a 0.36µm² Nb/AlO _x /Nb SIS tunnel junction with high quality circular non-contacting backshort and E-plane tuners in a full height waveguide mount. No resonant tuning structures have been incorporated in the junction design at this time, even though such structures are expected to help the performance of the receiver. The receiver operates to at least the gap frequency of Niobium, 680 GHz. Typical receiver noise temperatures from 565–690 GHz range from 160K to 230K with a best value of 185K DSB at 648 GHz. With the mixer cooled from 4.3K to 2K the measured receiver noise temperatures decreased by approximately 15%, giving roughly 180K DSB from 660 to 680 GHz. The receiver has a full 1 GHz IF passband and has been successfully installed at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in Hawaii.     

Comparative study of millimeter wave propagation at 30 GHz and 60 GHz in indoor environment

The millimeter wave band appears to be a favourable choice for personal wireless communication systems for indoor environment, as it meets the requirements for sufficient bandwidth, small terminal dimensions and sporadic usage for commercial applications.In this paper measurements of millimeter wave propagation in both 30 GHz and 60 GHz bands, are presented in a comparative way. The topology of measurements covers both a line-of-sight situation and also a case where a direct path between transmitter and receiver does not exist. Although the second case does not seem obvious for outdoor applications in these frequencies, in indoor environment the multipath signals produced by objects like walls, doors, furniture etc., can be utilised in order to overcome the man-made shadowing.Both slow and fast fading characteristics of the received signal are studied and the measurements are modelled by the conventional Rician and Rayleigh distributions. Both frequency bands offer advantages for usage in in-house wireless communication systems. Although in 30 GHz band the coverage area is bigger than in 60 GHz (with the same transmitting power), frequency reuse is easier in 60 GHz band. because even if millimeter waves escape through windows, the specific attenuation due to atmospheric oxygen (15 dB/km) at 60 GHz eliminates the interference between communication channels in neighbouring buildings.     

High-frequency-pass metallic mesh interference filters

Summary High-efficiency metallic mesh high-frequency-pass interference filters have been designed and constructed for the wavenumber region 30100 cm^–1. Widebandpass filters have been fabricated using a combination of highpass and lowpass filters. The highpass filters have performed successfully at low temperatures.     

Generation of sum-frequency sideband using 964 GHz HCN laser and 70 GHz klystron radiation

Continuosly tunable submillimeter radiation above 1 THz has been generated by sum-frequency mixing of HCN laser radiation (second strongest transition at 964.3 GHz) with that of klystron (70 GHz) in the Schottky barrier diode used as the non-linear element. Generated radiation was sufficiently strong to allow the high resolution frequency measurement of 9_9,1 8_8,0 transition in³²S¹⁶O.     

A dual-polarization InSb receiver for 461/492 GHz

A dual-polarization InSb hot-electron bolometer-mixer receiver has been built for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, for operation at 461 and 492 GHz (the frequencies of theJ=43 rotational transition of CO and of the³ P ₁³ P ₀ transition of neutral carbon). Receiver noise temperatures of 500K have been obtained at 461 GHz, in observing bandwidths of 3 MHz. The receiver was designed as a common-user or facility instrument. Here we describe those aspects of the design and construction which enabled this goal to be realized.     

A superconducting tunnel junction receiver for 345 GHz

In this paper we discuss the design, fabrication, and testing of a quasiparticle tunnel junction receiver for use at 345 GHz. The design employs small area Nb/Nb-oxide/PbInAu edge junctions in order to keep the device capacitance small and maintain a modest value for R_NC. For optimura noise performance and beam properties the mixer is contained in a waveguide mounting structure. Our best sensitivity was obtained at 312 GHz where we measured a double sideband (DSB) noise temperature of 275 K. Noise temperatures of 400 K (DSB) or better were obtained out to 350 GHz.     

230 and 492 GHz low noise sis waveguide receivers employing tuned Nb/AlOx/Nb tunnel junctions

We report results on two full height waveguide receivers that cover the 200–290 GHz and 380–510 GHz atmospheric windows. The receivers are part of the facility instrumentation at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. We have measured receiver noise temperatures in the range of 20K–35K DSB in the 200–290 GHz band, and 65–90K DSB in the 390–510 GHz atmospheric band. In both instances low mixer noise temperatures and very high quantum efficiency have been achieved. Conversion gain (3 dB) is possible with the 230 GHz receiver, however lowest noise and most stable operation is achieved with unity conversion gain.A 40% operating bandwidth is achieved by using a RF compensated junction mounted in a two-tuner full height waveguide mixer block. The tuned Nb/AlO _x /Nb tunnel junctions incorporate an end-loaded tuning stub with two quarter-wave transformer sections to tune out the large junction capacitance. Both 230 and 492 GHz SIS junctions are 0.49µm² in size and have current densities of 8 and 10 kA/cm² respectively.Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) measurements of the 230 and 492 GHz tuned junctions show good agreement with the measured heterodyne waveguide response.     

A low-noise 492 GHz SIS waveguide receiver

In this paper we discuss the design and performance of an SIS waveguide receiver which provides low noise performance from 375 to 510 GHz. At its design frequency of 492 GHz the receiver has a double sideband noise temperature of 172 K. By using embedded magnetic field concentrators, we are able to effectively suppress Josephson pair tunneling. Techniques for improving receiver performance are discussed.     

A Low-Noise 230 GHz SIS Receiver for Radio Astronomy Employing Untuned Nb/AlOx/Nb Tunnel Junctions

A heterodyne receiver based on a 1/3 reduced height rectangular waveguide SIS mixer with two mechanical tuners has been built for astronomical observations of molecular transitions in the 230 GHz frequency band. The mixer used an untuned array (R_nC_j3, R_n70 ) of four Nb/AIOx/Nb tunnel junctions in series as a nonlinear mixing element. A reasonable balance between the input and output coupling efficiencies has been obtained by choosing the junction number N=4. The receiver exhibits DSB (Double Side Band) noise temperature around 50 K over a frequency range of more than 10 GHz centered at 230 GHz. The lowest system noise temperature of 38 K has been recorded at 232.5 GHz. Mainly by adjusting the subwaveguide backshort, the SSB (Single Side Band) operation with image rejection of 15 dB is obtained with the noise temperature as low as 50 K. In addition, the noise contribution from each receiver component has been studied further. The minimum SIS mixer noise temperature is estimated as 15 K, pretty close to the quantum limit v/k11 K at 230 GHz. It is believed that the receiver noise temperatures presented are the lowest yet reported for a 230 GHz receiver using untuned junctions.     

Measurements of 220 GHz atmospheric opacity on Mt. Fuji with a radiometer/radome system

We measured atmospheric opacity at 220 GHz at the summit of Mt. Fuji (alt. 3776 m) about one year in order to explore a feasibility of submillimeter-wave astronomical observations. For this purpose, a 220 GHz radiometer system enclosed in a radome (51×51×62 cm³) has been developed. The 220 GHz opacity was lower than 0.06 for a significant fraction ( 45 %) of time from November 1994 to March 1995. Diurnal variation of the opacity at the summit of Mt. Fuji is so small that continuous observation at submillimeter-wave is possible through day and night. Yearly variation of the opacity is studied from water vapor pressure data measured at the weather station for the past 3 years. To prevent accumulation of ice and snow on the Gore-Tex membrane in the radome, the outer membrane was supplied with a thermal flux of 0.63 kW m^–2 and the adjacent metal radome surfaces were supplied with a flux of 0.9 kW m^–2. We evaluate from the 220 GHz transmission data that this heat flux is sufficient to keep the membrane on the radome free of ice and snow during 83 % of the time in 5 winter months. The summit of Mt. Fuji appears to be a promising site for submillimeter-wave observations.     

A 300 GHz quasioptical faraday rotation isolator

A quasioptical isolator has been developed at 285 GHz with insertion loss2 dB and isolation 18 dB over a 1% bandwidth. By improving matching techniques, the device should perform as well over bandwidths up to 5%. This design can be easily modified to make a circulator.     

利用准谐频叉指换能器实现GHz高频SAW滤波器

本文利用准谐频设计方法,在常规光刻工艺水平上,成功地实现了ＧＨＺ级声表面波（ＳＡＷ）器件,准谐频叉指换能器（ＱＨＩＤＴ）的优点为：其指条宽与指间隙可以比一般的单指换能器宽,克服了单指换能器内指间的多次反射,并且又较好地解决了普通谐频叉指换能器基频抑制不好的缺点,本文给出了制作在ＳＴ石英基片上,工作频率１１２８ＭＨＺ的声表面波滤波器的实验结果。     

A 691 GHz sis receiver for radio astronomy

We report the development of a low noise heterodyne receiver optimized for astronomical observations in the 650 GHz atmospheric window, and specifically for the CO(J=65) line at 691.5 GHz. The system is based on an open structure SIS heterodyne mixer pumped by a continuously tunable solid state oscillator. A niobium SIS junction double array is placed at the end of an integrated V-Antenna. For broad band impedance matching a combination of microstrip impedance transformer and radial stub was used. Receiver noise temperatures of 550 K DSB at 684 GHz were achieved at a 1.8 K physical temperature. The performance improved substantially when decreasing the temperature from 4.2 to 1.8 K. Comparison of model calculations and Fourier transform direct detection measurements of the tuning structure implies that this effect is likely due to the coincidence of operational frequency and the gap frequency of the niobium.     

Pressure broadening coefficients of the water vapor lines at 556.936 and 752.033 GHz

The air induced broadening coefficients of the pure rotational transitions of H₂O at 556.936 GHz (1₁₀←1₀₁), and 752.033 GHz (2₁₁←2₀₂) were measured by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. The air broadening coefficient was determined to be for the 556.936 GHz line and for the 752.033 GHz line, respectively. The present broadening coefficients for the 556.936 GHz water line are significantly smaller than those of Markov and Krupnov [Measurements of the pressure shift of the 1(10)-1(01) water line at 556.936 GHz produced by mixtures of gases. J Mol Spect 1995:172;211-4] but relatively close to the values of the HITRAN database. The measured data may improve the accuracy of the abundance of water vapor retrieved from spectra obtained by the Odin/SMR satellite instrument. The effect on the satellite retrieval processing is discussed.     

Effect of an applied magnetic field on the performance of a sis receiver near 300 GHz

We have successfully constructed and tested a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) receiver for operation at 265–280 GHz using 1 m² area Nb–AlO _x –Nb tunnel junctions fabricated at Stony Brook. The best performance to date is a double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature of 129 K at 278 GHz. We find that suppression of the Josephson pair currents with a magnetic field is essential for good performance and a stable DC bias point. Fields as high as 280 gauss have been used with no degradation of mixing performance. We illustrate the improvement in the intermediate frequency (IF) output stability with progressively increasing magnetic fields.     

Amplitude and phase characteristics of metal meshes—The elements of submillimeter interference filters

The direct measurements of the amplitude and phase characteristics of the capacitive and inductive meshes of different pattern, used as the elements in the submillimeter interference filters, are presented. The measurements were produced vith the submillimeter spectrometer «EPSILON» in the frequency range 250–550 GHz, which allowed to investigate the amplitude and phase characteristics of the meshes in the range of the relative frequencies=G/=0.2–1.5, whereG is a mesh constant and is the wavelength. The mathematical models of the amplitude and phase frequency dependences of the meshes, which allow to calculate correctly the spectral characteristics of the interference filters, constructed from the meshes, are presented.     

Pattern generation with cesium atomic beams at nanometer scales

We have demonstrated that a cesium atomic beam can be used to pattern a gold surface using a self assembling monolayer (SAM) as a resist. A 12.5 m period mesh was used as a proximity mask for the atomic beam. The cesium atoms locally change the wetability of the SAM, which allows a wet etching reagent to remove the underlying gold in the exposed regions. An edge resolution of better than 100 nm was obtained. The experiment suggests that this method can either be used as a sensitive position detector with nanometer resolution in atom optics, or for nanostructuring in a resist technique.     

Transient reflecting grating for sub-surface analysis: GHz ultrasonic and thermal spectroscopies and imaging

Picosecond time-resolved Transient Reflecting Grating (TRG) measurements are demonstrated for GHz ultrasonic and thermal spectroscopies of thin films and sub-surface regions of sub-m scale. The measurements should be tools for electrochemical interface monitoring and time-resolved imaging. Some results are presented to show ion-implantation-induced surface hardening and unusual heat-diffusion behavior near a silicon surface. A model describing potential dependence of TRG responses at an electrochemical interface is proposed. An image of photoexcited carrier density is compared with a thermal image for a He-ion-implanted silicon wafer to demonstrate the time-resolved imaging.