Advanced photon detectors using superconducting MgB2 films

The goals of the proposed work are to Investigate the film thickness (10–50 nm), substrate material (c-plane sapphire, MgO), and temperature (20-35 K) dependencies of the IF bandwidth in order to understand its upper limit; Investigate the operation of mixer devices of different lateral size (0.2-5 μm2) and establish the minimum size limit not leading to the degradation of the microdevice characteristics (TC, critical current, resistivity); Validate the THz operation of quasioptical MgB2 mixers through measurements of the noise temperature, IF bandwidth (ΔfIF), and required LO power at 0.6 THz, 1.5 THz, and 2.5 THz. The targets are: TM ≤ 1000K, PLO ≈10 μW, ΔfIF ≈ 20 GHz.