Dayem-Martin (SIS tunnel junction) mixers for low noise heterodyne receivers

Superconducting thin film tunnel junctions of small area (
.1 \rightarrow 1
μm
²
) have properties which make them suitable for high frequency (≳100 GHz) heterodyne receivers. Both pair and single quasiparticle tunneling is present in these devices, but it is found that the mixing due to the pair effect is apparently excessively noisy, whereas the single quasiparticle effect has a low noise character which gives hope for near quantum limited performance. The physical effect involved is photon assisted quasiparticle tunneling and was first observed by Dayem and Martin[1]. We have made laboratory tests at 115 and 230 GHz which gave single side band (SSB) mixer noise temperatures of 60 and 300 K respectively. Also we have fabricated a 90-140 GHz receiver for the Caltech Owens Valley Radio Observatory which has an overall receiver noise temperature of about 300 K (SSB).