A 4.7 THz HEB QCL receiver for STO2

  • Darren J. Hayton
  • , Jian Rong Gao
  • , Wouter Laauwen
  • , Behnam Mirzaei
  • , Andrey Khudchenko
  • , Jenna L. Kloosterman
  • , Dmitry Paveliev
  • , Qing Hu
  • , Wilt Kao
  • , Vladimir Vax
  • , Chris K. Walker

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

We report on a 4.7 THz heterodyne receiver designed for high resolution spectroscopy of the astronomically important neutral oxygen (OI) line at 4.745 THz. The receiver is based around a hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer and quantum cascade laser (QCL) local oscillator. This receiver has been developed to fly on the Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory (STO-2), a balloon-borne 0.8 m telescope observing from an altitude of 44 km for 14 days or more. We measure a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 815 K (~ 7 times quantum noise) with a noise temperature IF bandwidth of 3.5 GHz. We describe the receiver performance expected in flight and outline novel approaches to QCL amplitude and frequency stabilization.

Original languageEnglish (US)
StatePublished - 2017
Event27th International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology, ISSTT 2016 - Nanjing, China
Duration: Apr 12 2016Apr 15 2016

Other

Other27th International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology, ISSTT 2016
Country/TerritoryChina
CityNanjing
Period4/12/164/15/16

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiation
  • Space and Planetary Science
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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