THz sources and detectors fabricated from high temperature superconductors

Abstract

High temperature superconductors have unique properties that can be useful in the THz region, single crystal constituted from superconducting CuO2-layers could sustain high voltages across the junctions and they are coupled through the intrinsic Josephson Effect this maintains the potential for very intense, coherent radiation which spreads over the THz gap. We investigated various experimental techniques to fabricate THz sources, bolometers and filters for efficient THz emission and detection. Rectangular mesa structures were fabricated on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-x (Bi2212) single crystal superconductors using standard e-beam lithography and Ar ion beam etching systems and an emitted power as high as 60 ?W at frequencies up to 0.85 THz was detected from micron sized continuous wave terahertz sources. We also fabricated bolometric microchips for THz detection purpose from Bi2212 single crystals. Bi2212 microchips detected the signals and response time were calculated, our results have clearly shown that Bi2212 single crystals are potential candidates for THz detection. The detection properties and sensitivity of bolometer chips can be further improved by integrating an antenna and filter structures. In order to investigate this we have fabricated metamaterial THz filters based on metals and YBa2Cu3Ox superconducting thin films with metal-mesh shape and a unique fourcross shape pattern. Both a THz time domain spectrometer and a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) were used to investigate the performance of these filters and the results were compared with simulations done with a commercially available electromagnetic simulation software. © Springer Nature B.V. 2021.