This review presents an overview of the thermal properties of mesoscopic structures. The discussion is based on the concept of electron energy distribution, and, in particular, on controlling and probing it. The temperature of an electron gas is determined by this distribution: refrigeration is equivalent to narrowing it, and thermometry is probing its convolution with a function characterizing the measuring device. Temperature exists, strictly speaking, only in quasiequilibrium in which the distribution follows the Fermi-Dirac form. Interesting nonequilibrium deviations can occur due to slow relaxation rates of the electrons, e.g., among themselves or with lattice phonons. Observation and applications of nonequilibrium phenomena are also discussed. The focus in this paper is at low temperatures, primarily below $4\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, where physical phenomena on mesoscopic scales and hybrid combinations of various types of materials, e.g., superconductors, normal metals, insulators, and doped semiconductors, open up a rich variety of device concepts. This review starts with an introduction to theoretical concepts and experimental results on thermal properties of mesoscopic structures. Then thermometry and refrigeration are examined with an emphasis on experiments. An immediate application of solid-state refrigeration and thermometry is in ultrasensitive radiation detection, which is discussed in depth. This review concludes with a summary of pertinent fabrication methods of presented devices.

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Opportunities for mesoscopics in thermometry and refrigeration: Physics and applications

By covering a metal ground plane with a periodic surface texture, we can alter its electromagnetic properties. The impedance of this metasurface can be modeled as a parallel resonant circuit, with sheet inductance L, and sheet capacitance C. The reflection phase varies with frequency from +/spl pi/ to -/spl pi/, and crosses through 0 at the LC resonance frequency, where the surface behaves as an artificial magnetic conductor. By incorporating varactor diodes into the texture, we have built a tunable impedance surface, in which an applied bias voltage controls the resonance frequency, and the reflection phase. We can program the surface to create a tunable phase gradient, which can electronically steer a reflected beam over +/- 40/spl deg/ in two dimensions, for both polarizations. We have also found that this type of resonant surface texture can provide greater bandwidth than conventional reflectarray structures. This new electronically steerable reflector offers a low-cost alternative to a conventional phased array.

Two-dimensional beam steering using an electrically tunable impedance surface

This paper provide a review of the active integrated antenna (AIA) technologies. After a brief introduction on the definition and some historical remarks, the paper concentrates on the research effort on the past decades or so. The AlAs are reviewed in its various functions. First, an oscillator-type AIA is presented, followed by very interesting aspects of coupled oscillator arrays for phase control. Use of an AIA concept for efficient RF front ends is described with examples on high-power amplifier AlAs. Next, a phase-conjugation-based retrodirective array is reviewed. Finally, AIA systems for receiving, transmitting, and duplexing are reviewed.

Active integrated antennas

The finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method is extended to include distributed electromagnetic systems with lumped elements (a hybrid system) and voltage and current sources. FDTD equations that include nonlinear elements like diodes and transistors are derived. Calculation of driving-point impedance is described. Comparison of FDTD calculated results with analytical results for several two-dimensional transmission-line configurations illustrates the accuracy of the method. FDTD results for a transistor model and a diode are compared with SPICE calculations. The extended FDTD method should prove useful in the design and analysis of complicated distributed systems with various active, passive, linear, and nonlinear lumped electrical components. >

Extending the two-dimensional FDTD method to hybrid electromagnetic systems with active and passive lumped elements

The basic theory of quasi-optical Gaussian beam propagation and beam transformation by simple optical elements is summarized, and coupling to and between Gaussian beams is briefly discussed Guidelines for Gaussian optics system design are reviewed, the most important being beam truncation and matching Passive components in the terahertz frequency range based on quasi-optical propagation, including polarization processors, filters, diplexers, and ferrite devices, are examined Some active quasi-optical devices, including multielement oscillators, frequency multipliers, and phase shifters, are described Some specific applications of quasi-optical systems are briefly described >

Quasi-optical techniques

Monolithic diode grids have been fabricated on 2 cm square gallium-arsenide wafers with 1600 Schottky-barrier varactor diodes. Shorted diodes are detected with a liquid-crystal technique, and the bad diodes are removed with an ultrasonic probe. A small-aperture reflectome- ter that uses wavefront division interference was developed to measure the reflection coefficient of the grids. A phase shift of 70" with a 7 dB loss was obtained at 93 GHz when the bias on the diode grid was changed from - 3 V to 1 V. A simple transmission-line grid model, together with the measured low-frequency parameters for the diodes, was shown to predict the measured performance over the entire capacitive bias range of the diodes, as well as over the complete reactive tuning range provided by a reflector behind the grid, and over a wide range of frequencies from 33 GHz to 141 GHz. This shows that the transmission-line model and the measured low-frequeilcy diode parameters can be used to design an electronic beam-steering array and to predict its performance. An elec- tronic beam-steering array made of a pair of grids using state-of-the-art diodes with 5 B series resistances would have a loss of 1.4 dB at 90 GHz.

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Millimeter- W ave Diode-Grid Phase Shfters

During recent years, there has been considerable interest in obtaining spatially localized time resolved density measurements in fusion plasmas. However, the study of such phenomena requires many channels of information on a scale much finer than available with current discrete chordal view multichannel interferometers. These problems can be overcome by imaging an expanded probe beam occupying the entire plasma port crosssection onto a linear detector array[1], thereby significantly reducing the number of optical components and hence the cost and complexity of the system compared with a comparable discrete chord multichannel interferometer. Other more fundamental advantages of the imaging technique include compensation for phase errors due to plasma refraction, whilst the diffraction limited system resolution (typically ≃ 1cm for FIR probe wavelengths) allows the use of many detector channels for high spatial sampling rates. and hence accurate reconstruction of the density profiles.

Phase imaging systems for measurement of plasma density contours

At millimeter wavelengths, harmonic frequency multipliers are widely used to produce local oscillator power for heterodyne receivers; however, the output power level is limited to only a few milliwatts due to the fact that only a single varactor element is employed. Recently, Archer demonstrated a dual-diode. doubler with an output power of 26mW at 105 GHz(1). However many applications such as imaging arrays require considerably more power. To satisfy this need we propose a monolithic quasi-optical diode grid design for high power harmonic frequency multiplication.

Watt-level monolithic quasi-optical diode frequency multiplier grid

The bismuth microbolometer is a simple, easily made detector suitable for use throughout the far-infrared. A novel photoresist fabrication procedure has made it possible to obtain an electrical NEP of 2.8×10−11W (Hz)−1/2 at 100kHz for an airbridge bolometer. By using a polyimide plastic as an insulator, conventional substrate-supported devices with an NEP of 3.2×10−11W(Hz)−1/2 have also been made.

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Wayne W. Lam

Papers

Millimeter- W ave Diode-Grid Phase Shfters

Phase imaging systems for measurement of plasma density contours

Watt-level monolithic quasi-optical diode frequency multiplier grid

Advances in microbolometers