Hot electron bolometer heterodyne receiver with a 4.7-THz quantum cascade laser as a local oscillator

J. L. Kloosterman, D. J. Hayton, Y. Ren, T. Y. Kao, J. N. Hovenier, J. R. Gao, T. M. Klapwijk, Q. Hu, C. K. Walker, J. L. Reno

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95 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report on a heterodyne receiver designed to observe the astrophysically important neutral atomic oxygen [OI] line at 4.7448 THz. The local oscillator is a third-order distributed feedback quantum cascade laser operating in continuous wave mode at 4.741 THz. A quasi-optical, superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer is used as the mixer. We recorded a double sideband receiver noise temperature (T r e c D S B) of 815 K, which is ∼ 7 times the quantum noise limit (h ν 2 k B) and an Allan variance time of 15 s at an effective noise fluctuation bandwidth of 18 MHz. Heterodyne performance was confirmed by measuring a methanol line spectrum.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number011123
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume102
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 7 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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