RT Journal Article
T1 Sensitivity limits of millimeter-wave photonic radiometers based on efficient electro-optic upconverters
A1 Santamaría Botello, Gabriel Arturo
A1 Sedlmeir, Florian
A1 Rueda, Alfredo
A1 Abdalmalak Dawoud, Kerlos Atia
A1 Brown, Elliott R.
A1 Leuchs, Gerd
A1 Preu, Sascha
A1 Segovia Vargas, Daniel
A1 Strekalov, Dmitry V.
A1 García Muñoz, Luis Enrique
A1 Schwefel, Harald G. L.
AB Conventional ultra-high sensitivity detectors in the millimeter-wave range are usually cooled as their own thermal noise at room temperature would mask the weak received radiation. The need for cryogenic systems increases the cost and complexity of the instruments, hindering the development of, among others, airborne and space applications. In this work, the nonlinear parametric upconversion of millimeter-wave radiation to the optical domain inside high-quality (Q) lithium niobate whispering-gallery mode (WGM) resonators is proposed for ultra-low noise detection. We experimentally demonstrate coherent upconversion of millimeter-wave signals to a 1550 nm telecom carrier, with a photon conversion efficiency surpassing the state-of-the-art by 2 orders of magnitude. Moreover, a theoretical model shows that the thermal equilibrium of counterpropagating WGMs is broken by overcoupling the millimeter-wave WGM, effectively cooling the upconverted mode and allowing ultra-low noise detection. By theoretically estimating the sensitivity of a correlation radiometer based on the presented scheme, it is found that room-temperature radiometers with better sensitivity than state-of-the-art high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT)-based radiometers can be designed. This detection paradigm can be used to develop room-temperature instrumentation for radio astronomy, earth observation, planetary missions, and imaging systems.
PB Optica
SN 2334-2536
YR 2018
FD 2018-10-20
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/36465
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/36465
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (TEC2013-47753-C3); Comunidad de Madrid (S2013/ICE-3004); Banco Santander (TEC2016-76997-C3-2-R); Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) (IN[16]_TIC_TIC_0040); 2017 UC3M-Santander Chair of Excellence.
DS e-Archivo
RD 27 jul. 2024