Heterodyne performance of a quasioptical Schottky diode detector: Theoretical and experimental results

A detailed theoretical and experimental study of the heterodyne performance of a quasioptical Schottky diode detector is presented. The experimental results have been obtained by mixing the radiation from a FIR laser with the output of a 67–73 GHz Klystron. The heterodyne signal variation versus various parameters and its relation to the special case of two lasers mixing are described. The mixer characteristics are a NEP value of 2×10^?19W/Hz and a detector bandwidth of at least 9 GHz. Experimental evidence of harmonics generation of submillimetric frequencies at the diode junction is also presented.