An Antenna with a Feeder for a Superconducting Terahertz Josephson Oscillator with Phase Locking

Abstract

A principal layout of a Josephson terahertz radiation oscillator integrated with a transmitting antenna-lens system and a harmonic mixer (HM) for phase locking of radiation has been proposed and was successfully implemented. Two antenna-feeder systems designed for the central frequencies of 0.3 and 0.6 THz and located on the same chip with the oscillator are numerically simulated and fabricated. A microstrip transmission line between the oscillator and the antenna is used as the feeder. A study was carried out on matching the oscillator power and HM for two designs; the frequency range of pumping HM was 0.25–0.45 and 0.5–0.68 THz for the designs at 0.3 and 0.6 THz, respectively. Good agreement was obtained between experimental results and numerical simulations. A study of the spectral characteristics of the radiation of the oscillator into the external space for the 0.6 THz design using a superconducting integrated spectrometer was carried out. The linewidth of an emission line in free-running regime was of the order of several megahertz; in the phase locking regime down to tens of kilohertz with a signal-to-noise ratio of more than 20 dB was obtained.