학술논문

Ultra-sensitive heterodyne detection at room temperature in the atmospheric windows
Document Type
research-article
Source
Nanophotonics. 13(10):1765-1772
Subject
infrared detection
unipolar quantum devices
frequency stabilization
Research Article
Language
English
ISSN
2192-8614
Abstract
We report room temperature heterodyne detection of a quantum cascade laser beaten with a local oscillator on a unipolar quantum photodetector in two different atmospheric windows, at 4.8 µm and 9 µm. A noise equivalent power of few pW is measured by employing an active stabilization technique in which the local oscillator and the signal are locked in phase. The measured heterodyne noise equivalent power is six orders of magnitude lower than that obtained with direct detection.