CC BY
3*
ALT'23 The 30th International Conference on Advanced Laser Technologies
N-I-19
Terahertz HEB-based on-chip spectrometers for material
and biomedical studies
A. Shurakov12, A. Prikhodko12, I. Belikov12, G. Goltsman12
1-Moscow Pedagogical State University, 1/1 Malaya Pirogovskaya St., Moscow 119991, Russia 2- National Research University Higher School of Economics, 20 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow 101000, Russia
Main author email address: alexander@rplab.ru
Terahertz (THz) electronics was a subject of numerous scientific studies for the last several decades. Efficient handling of THz radiation is vital for further enhancement of medical and security systems, meteorological and astronomical instruments, wireless communications, etc. Based on the requirements imposed by the application specifics, semi- or superconductor integrated circuits (ICs) are of interest in practical THz systems. In the upper part of the THz band, however, their ultimate performance can be achieved if electronic circuits are combined with photonic power distribution networks (PPDNs). Benefits of such an approach are investigated in number of studies published recently. Use of a hybrid electronic-photonic platform is meant to mitigate intrinsic losses in IC and to increase the integrability of nonlinear frequency conversion devices drastically [1].
In this paper, we report on the development of a THz on-chip spectrometer making use of an N-element linear array of nearly all-dielectric hot electron bolometers (HEBs) [2]. The spectrometer utilizes 2N fixed frequency channels for processing of a wideband THz signal, whose interaction with a material under test (MUT) is followed by analog binning. The design relies on integrated Si photonic crystals merged with Si ribbon waveguide sections for frequency selective power splitting in the spectrometer PPDN. MUT is deposited on a single-mode Si ribbon waveguide at the spectrometer input or surrounds it if liquid samples are studied. In the latter case, the input waveguide section is implemented outside the cryostat used to cool down the PPDN with HEB sensors. Optical transition between cryogenic and room temperature parts is maintained by either a dielectric waveguide [3] or quasioptically [4]. The probing octave-wide THz signal, in turn, can be excited on-chip or inserted into it externally. Performance of the spectrometer is assessed and compared with alternative state-of-the-art designs. Our findings suggest that the proposed design of the spectrometer should find applications in material and biomedical studies.
The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 21-72-10119, https://rscf.ru/project/21-72-10119/.
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