A Compact Schottky Heterodyne Receiver for 2.06 THz Neutral Oxygen [OI]

Abstract

In this paper we present the latest results on the performance of a compact, low power, solid-state heterodyne receiver that is being developed to target the 2.06 THz neutral oxygen [OI] line. The receiver front end features a subharmonic Schottky diode mixer that is driven by a high output all-Schottky multiplier local oscillator (LO) source. The multiplier chain consists of a 38 GHz oscillator followed by cascaded triplers at 114 GHz, 343 GHz and 1.03 THz to produce ~1 mW of LO power. The receiver is characterized for sensitivity between room temperature and 70 K. Additional data is presented demonstrating the receiver stability in terms of Allan time.