Heterodyne THz-wave receiver with a superconducting tunneling mixer driven by a high sweeping-speed photonics-based THz-wave local oscillator

Kyoung-Hwan Oh; Naofumi Shimizu; Naoya Kukutsu; Yuichi Kado; Satoshi Kohjiro; Ken'ichi Kikuchi; Takahiro Yamada; Atsushi Wakatsuki

doi:10.1587/elex.6.601

LETTER

Heterodyne THz-wave receiver with a superconducting tunneling mixer driven by a high sweeping-speed photonics-based THz-wave local oscillator

Kyoung-Hwan Oh, Naofumi Shimizu, Naoya Kukutsu, Yuichi Kado, Satoshi Kohjiro, Ken'ichi Kikuchi, Takahiro Yamada, Atsushi Wakatsuki

Author information

Kyoung-Hwan Oh
Microsystem Integration Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)
Naofumi Shimizu
Microsystem Integration Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)
Naoya Kukutsu
Microsystem Integration Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)
Yuichi Kado
Microsystem Integration Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)
Satoshi Kohjiro
Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Ken'ichi Kikuchi
Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Takahiro Yamada
Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Atsushi Wakatsuki
Photonic Laboratories, NTT

Keywords: heterodyne receiver, SIS mixer, photonics-based local oscillator, emission spectroscopy

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2009 Volume 6 Issue 10 Pages 601-606

DOI https://doi.org/10.1587/elex.6.601

Details

Abstract

We developed a broadband, highly sensitive heterodyne THz-wave receiver with a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer. To fully utilize wide-bandwidth characteristics of the SIS mixer, we pump the SIS mixer with a photonics-based local oscillator (PLO) with fast frequency-sweeping speed. The received THz-wave signal down-converted to an intermediated frequency band is rapidly acquired by a high-speed analog-to-digital converter. The noise level of the developed receiver is equal to or smaller than twenty times the quantum-limited noise level between 225 and 425GHz. With this receiver, the frequency sweep from 225 to 475GHz with frequency resolution of 0.5GHz takes only about 2.5sec. Emission spectra of N₂O gases measured with this receiver show its excellent performance.

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