A 1.5 THz hot electron bolometer receiver for ground-based terahertz astronomy in northern Chile

摘要: A 1.5 THz superconducting receiver has been in operation at the Receiver Lab Telescope of Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Northern Chile since December 2004. This incorporates a Hot Electron Bolometer (HEB) mixer chip made from thin film Niobium Titanium Nitride (NbTiN), which is mounted precisionmachined waveguide block attached to corrugated waveguide horn assembly. With noise temperature around 1500 K, this sensitive enough for use pioneering field ground-based terahertz spectral-line astronomy. number innovative techniques have employed construction and deployment receiver. These include near-field vector beam mapping enable accurate coupling telescope optics, tunerless planar-diode based local oscillator unit capable generating few μW THz, special calibration required astronomy. In paper, we will report on design, set-up state-of-the-art instrument.