Radiation power of NbN-based flux-flow oscillators for THz-band integrated SIS receivers

摘要

To develop an efficient local oscillator (LO) integrated with a SIS mixer operating above the gap frequency of Nb, we have investigated the radiation power P of NbN-based flux-flow-type Josephson oscillators (FFO's). The designed and fabricated chip incorporates FFO's, SIS power detectors (DET's), and their coupling circuits. Both FFO's and DET's consist of epitaxial NbN/AlN/NbN junctions with high critical current density J/sub C/ (15>J/sub C/>78 kA/cm/sup 2/). The most part of the coupling circuit consists of NbN/SiO/sub 2//Al microstrip lines whose rf-loss is approximately 3 dB. It has been found P<200 nW, enough for the optimum pumping of a SIS mixer with rf-resistance of 50 /spl Omega/, is coupled to DET's for 0.5-0.9 THz. The coupling bandwidth is larger than 20% of its central frequency. In the band, the radiation frequency is tuned by the control current through the FFO of 10-100 mA. The maximum coupling frequency of the present experiment is quantitatively agreed with the theoretical one. The peak power of 1.3 /spl mu/W is detected at 0.76 THz. The dissipated power in a FFO is smaller than 500 /spl mu/W, which is 10/sup -4/ times less than that of semiconductor sources. These results indicate the feasibility of NbN-based FFO's for a practical on-chip LO.