Cargando…

Sensitivity and noise in THz electro-optic upconversion radiometers

This paper presents a study of noise in room-temperature THz radiometers that use THz-to-optical upconversion followed by optical detection of thermal radiation. Despite some undesired upconverted thermal noise, no noise is intrinsically introduced by efficient electro-optic modulation via a sum-fre...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Santamaría-Botello, Gabriel, Popovic, Zoya, Abdalmalak, Kerlos Atia, Segovia-Vargas, Daniel, Brown, Elliott R., García Muñoz, Luis Enrique
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7287047/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32523010
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65987-x
_version_ 1783544984122687488
author Santamaría-Botello, Gabriel
Popovic, Zoya
Abdalmalak, Kerlos Atia
Segovia-Vargas, Daniel
Brown, Elliott R.
García Muñoz, Luis Enrique
author_facet Santamaría-Botello, Gabriel
Popovic, Zoya
Abdalmalak, Kerlos Atia
Segovia-Vargas, Daniel
Brown, Elliott R.
García Muñoz, Luis Enrique
author_sort Santamaría-Botello, Gabriel
collection PubMed
description This paper presents a study of noise in room-temperature THz radiometers that use THz-to-optical upconversion followed by optical detection of thermal radiation. Despite some undesired upconverted thermal noise, no noise is intrinsically introduced by efficient electro-optic modulation via a sum-frequency-generation process in high quality factor (Q) whispering-gallery mode (WGM) resonators. However, coherent and incoherent optical detection results in fundamentally different noise characteristics. The analysis shows that the upconversion receiver is quantum limited like conventional amplifiers and mixers, only when optical homodyne or heterodyne detection is performed. However, this type of receiver shows advantages as a THz photon counter, where counting is in the optical domain. Theoretical predictions show that upconversion-based room-temperature receivers can outperform state-of-the-art cooled and room-temperature THz receivers based on low-noise amplifiers and mixers, provided that a photon conversion efficiency greater than 1% is realized. Although the detection bandwidth is naturally narrow due to the highly resonant electro-optic modulator, it is not fundamentally limited and can be broadened by engineering selective optical coupling mechanisms to the resonator.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7287047
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-72870472020-06-15 Sensitivity and noise in THz electro-optic upconversion radiometers Santamaría-Botello, Gabriel Popovic, Zoya Abdalmalak, Kerlos Atia Segovia-Vargas, Daniel Brown, Elliott R. García Muñoz, Luis Enrique Sci Rep Article This paper presents a study of noise in room-temperature THz radiometers that use THz-to-optical upconversion followed by optical detection of thermal radiation. Despite some undesired upconverted thermal noise, no noise is intrinsically introduced by efficient electro-optic modulation via a sum-frequency-generation process in high quality factor (Q) whispering-gallery mode (WGM) resonators. However, coherent and incoherent optical detection results in fundamentally different noise characteristics. The analysis shows that the upconversion receiver is quantum limited like conventional amplifiers and mixers, only when optical homodyne or heterodyne detection is performed. However, this type of receiver shows advantages as a THz photon counter, where counting is in the optical domain. Theoretical predictions show that upconversion-based room-temperature receivers can outperform state-of-the-art cooled and room-temperature THz receivers based on low-noise amplifiers and mixers, provided that a photon conversion efficiency greater than 1% is realized. Although the detection bandwidth is naturally narrow due to the highly resonant electro-optic modulator, it is not fundamentally limited and can be broadened by engineering selective optical coupling mechanisms to the resonator. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7287047/ /pubmed/32523010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65987-x Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Santamaría-Botello, Gabriel
Popovic, Zoya
Abdalmalak, Kerlos Atia
Segovia-Vargas, Daniel
Brown, Elliott R.
García Muñoz, Luis Enrique
Sensitivity and noise in THz electro-optic upconversion radiometers
title Sensitivity and noise in THz electro-optic upconversion radiometers
title_full Sensitivity and noise in THz electro-optic upconversion radiometers
title_fullStr Sensitivity and noise in THz electro-optic upconversion radiometers
title_full_unstemmed Sensitivity and noise in THz electro-optic upconversion radiometers
title_short Sensitivity and noise in THz electro-optic upconversion radiometers
title_sort sensitivity and noise in thz electro-optic upconversion radiometers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7287047/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32523010
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65987-x
work_keys_str_mv AT santamariabotellogabriel sensitivityandnoiseinthzelectroopticupconversionradiometers
AT popoviczoya sensitivityandnoiseinthzelectroopticupconversionradiometers
AT abdalmalakkerlosatia sensitivityandnoiseinthzelectroopticupconversionradiometers
AT segoviavargasdaniel sensitivityandnoiseinthzelectroopticupconversionradiometers
AT brownelliottr sensitivityandnoiseinthzelectroopticupconversionradiometers
AT garciamunozluisenrique sensitivityandnoiseinthzelectroopticupconversionradiometers