Josephson heterodyne detection at high thermal background levels
- 1 January 1982
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 53 (1) , 51-58
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.329957
Abstract
Point-contact Josephson junctions with a submicron contact diameter have been used as high-frequency mixers (170–220 GHz) under high thermal background conditions. The junction is formed across a full height (0.56×1.06 mm2) waveguide between a 3–5-μm thick Nb whisker and a 0.2-mm diam Nb center conductor of a coaxial line. The best single-side band mixer-noise temperature that was measured is 165 K (± 25%) with a corresponding single-side band conversion efficiency of 0.36±0.03 (a loss of 4.5 ±0.4 dB) at a signal frequency of 185 GHz, including losses in the coupling horn and the waveguide. The performance was measured with the hot-cold source technique. The effects of nonheterodyne response in that situation were investigated in detail. The junctions have been operated in a coherent receiver that can be used on a telescope with only small adaptations. The instantaneous bandwidth of the receiver is about 20 GHz.This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
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