中红外频段基于超导热电子混频器的高分辨率相干接收频谱仪研究

The mid-infrared frequency region plays a vital role in the modern astronomy research, which includes early cosmic evolution, star and galaxy formation, and the planet’s atmosphere research. However, the high-resolution spectrometer in this frequency region is still under developed. This proposal will focused on the development of a heterodyne spectrometer based on a superconducting hot-electron bolometer as a mixer and a quantum cascade laser as a local oscillator in the mid-infrared frequency region. The main research area includes the characterization of electron transport, thermal coupling as well as the optical coupling of a superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixer in mid-infrared region. Also, the quantum cascade laser will be developed as the local oscillator and the noise temperature, gain bandwidth with stability performance of the entire heterodyne spectrometer will be characterized. Eventually, this developed high-resolution heterodyne spectrometer would be a milestone for future mid-infrared telescope missions in China.

中红外频段的高分辨率谱线观测对于研究宇宙状态和演化，包括早期宇宙演化、恒星和星系形成、以及行星大气等前沿科学问题具有不可替代的作用。然而与之相关的相干接收频谱仪的研制还相对滞后。本项申请将主要研究中红外频段基于超导热电子混频器以及量子级联激光器的高分辨率相干接收频谱仪的关键技术，主要包括超导热电子混频器在中红外频段的电子输运特性、射频耦合特性，量子级联激光器的辐射频谱特性，以及超导相干接收机的混频特性等，最终实现中红外频段超导相干接收频谱仪的演示应用。本项申请将为我国未来中红外天文观测奠定关键技术基础。

本项目突破超导微桥与中红外辐射高效耦合技术，首次实验揭示中红外超导热电子器件的射频噪声起源与量子噪声贡献，进而成功研制国际最高频率准光天线耦合型超导热电子混频器，并构建了首个基于相位光栅的多波束本振信号低温背向耦合系统，解决了我国中红外天文观测亟需的高光谱分辨率探测技术。