An SIS waveguide heterodyne receiver for 600 HGz-635 GHz |
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Authors: | Morvan Salez Pascal Febvre William R. Mcgrath Bruce Bumble Henry G. Leduc |
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Affiliation: | (1) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Center for Space Microelectronics Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, 91109 Pasadena, California;(2) DEMIRM-Observatoire de Meudon, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France |
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Abstract: | A waveguide SIS heterodyne receiver using a Nb/AlOX/Nb junction has been built for astronomical observations of molecular transitions in the frequency range 600 GHz - 635 GHz, and has been successfully used at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). We report double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperatures as low as 245 K at 600 GHz -610 GHz, and near 300 K over the rest of the bandwidth. These results confirm that SIS quasiparticle mixers work well at submillimeter-wave frequencies corresponding to photon energies of at least 90% of the superconductor energy gap. In addition, we have systematically investigated the effect on the receiver performance of the overlap between first-order and second-order photon steps of opposite sign at these frequencies. The receiver noise increases by as much as 40% in the region of overlap. We infer potential limitations for operating submillimeter-wave Nb/AlOx/Nb mixers. |
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Keywords: | superconductors SIS junctions SIS mixers SIS receivers submillimeter waves |
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