Terahertz detectors based on superconducting hot electron bolometers

Low noise terahertz(THz)heterodyne detectors based on superconducting niobium nitride(NbN) hot electron bolometers(HEBs)have been studied.The HEB consists of a planar antenna and an NbN bridge connecting across the antenna’s inner terminals on a high-resistivity Si substrate.The double sideband noise temperatures at 4.2 K without corrections have been characterized from 0.65 to 3.1 THz.The excess quantum noise factor β of about 4 has been obtained,which agrees well with the calculated value.Allan variance of the HEB has been measured,and Allan time up to 20 s is obtained using a microwave feedback method.Also,the intermediate frequency gain bandwidth(GBW)was measured using two dierent methods,resulting in same GBW value of about 3.5 GHz.