Impedance models for tunable antenna-coupled intersubband terahertz (TACIT) mixers

C. Yoo; K. W. West; L. N. Pfeiffer; J. H. Kawamura; B. S. Karasik; M. S. Sherwin

doi:10.1117/12.2630575

31 August 2022 Impedance models for tunable antenna-coupled intersubband terahertz (TACIT) mixers

C. Yoo, K. W. West, L. N. Pfeiffer, J. H. Kawamura, B. S. Karasik, M. S. Sherwin

Proceedings Volume 12190, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XI; 121901Z (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630575
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Conference Poster

Abstract

Tunable antenna-coupled intersubband terahertz (TACIT) mixers are a new type of THz heterodyne detectors based on intersubband transitions in single GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. TACIT mixers have been predicted to have low single-sideband (SSB) noise temperature (∼2,000 K) at 20–60 K with a wide IF bandwidth (∼10 GHz) and a small required local-oscillator (LO) power (< 1 µW). In addition, the detection frequency of TACIT mixers can be tuned in-situ in a wide frequency range (2–5 THz). In TACIT mixers, THz signal (RF) channel is separated from GHz intermediate-frequency (IF) read-out channel, allowing individual optimization of the RF and IF channels for efficient impedance matching. We present simple equivalent-circuit models for the RF and IF channels of TACIT mixers and demonstrate that the RF and IF impedances calculated from the models are in good agreement with their indirect or direct experimental characterizations in prototype TACIT mixers. We show that the separately optimized RF and IF channels in practical TACIT mixers can yield high impedance matching efficiencies.

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C. Yoo, K. W. West, L. N. Pfeiffer, J. H. Kawamura, B. S. Karasik, and M. S. Sherwin "Impedance models for tunable antenna-coupled intersubband terahertz (TACIT) mixers", Proc. SPIE 12190, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XI, 121901Z (31 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630575

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