Remote Location of Superconducting Josephson Junction in Planar Antennas for Improved THz Detection

Abstract

Detection of THz radiation can be significantly simplified using a detection system based on Superconducting Josephson junctions. Rather than operating extremely sophisticated conventional electronic equipment, the intensity and frequency can be derived from the Shapiro current steps. However, the detection efficiency is extremely sensitive to impedance mismatch between the antenna and the junction. In our proposed configuration, we displace the junction from the antenna center and placed it between the ends of two matching strips. Extensive simulations of this structure, based on theoretical analysis, show that with proper optimization of strip dimensions, high impedance matching can be obtained for the frequency range of around 265 GHz.