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Quantum detection at millimeter wavelengths

John R. Tucker and Marc J. Feldman*

John R. Tucker

  • Department of Electrical Engineering and Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Marc J. Feldman*

  • NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York 10025

  • *Also at Columbia University. Present address: Electrical Engineering Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22901.
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Rev. Mod. Phys. 57, 1055 – Published 1 October, 1985

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.57.1055

Abstract

Photon-assisted tunneling of electrons through an insulating barrier may be used to detect long-wavelength radiation with a sensitivity approaching the limit imposed by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. A new generation of ultra-low-noise millimeter-wave receivers, currently being developed for astronomical observation, utilizes the extremely sharp nonlinearity produced by single-electron quasiparticle tunneling between two superconductors in a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction. At millimeter wavelengths, the quantum energy ℏωe may be larger than the voltage width for onset of quasiparticle tunneling in a SIS junction; and under these conditions the absorption of a single photon can cause one additional electron to tunnel through the barrier. Several newly discovered quantum effects become possible in this regime, including power amplification of an incoming signal during the process of frequency down-conversion in a heterodyne receiver. The experimental development of SIS millimeter-wave receivers is reviewed, along with the quantum theory of mixing which predicts their performance.

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Rev. Mod. Phys. 57, 1055– Published 1 October, 1985

    © 1985 American Physical Society

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