A 4.7 THz HEB QCL receiver for STO2

Conference paper (2017)

Authors

Darren J. Hayton SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
J.R. Gao SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, QN/Gao Lab
Chris K. Walker University of Arizona
W.M. Laauwen SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
B. Mirzaei QN/Gao Lab
Andrey Khudchenko SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
Jenna L. Kloosterman Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, CA
Dmitry Paveliev Lobachevskii State University of Nizhny Novgorod
Qing Hu Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Wilt Kao LongWave Photonics LLC
Vladimir Vax Russian Academy of Sciences
Research Group
QN/Gao Lab
Copyright: © 2017 Darren J. Hayton, J.R. Gao, Wouter Laauwen, B. Mirzaei, Andrey Khudchenko, Jenna L. Kloosterman, Dmitry Paveliev, Qing Hu, Wilt Kao, Vladimir Vax, Chris K. Walker
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Published Date

2017

Language

English

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Research Group

QN/Gao Lab

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.