Single-chip electron spin resonance detectors operating at 50GHz, 92GHz, and 146GHz

Abstract

We report on the design and characterization of single-chip electron spin resonance (ESR) detectors operating at 50GHz, 92GHz, and 146GHz. The core of the single-chip ESR detectors is an integrated LC-oscillator, formed by a single turn aluminum planar coil, a metal-oxide-metal capacitor, and two metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors used as negative resistance network. On the same chip, a second, nominally identical, LC-oscillator together with a mixer and an output buffer are also integrated. Thanks to the slightly asymmetric capacitance of the mixer inputs, a signal at a few hundreds of MHz is obtained at the output of the mixer. The mixer is used for frequency down-conversion, with the aim to obtain an output signal at a frequency easily manageable off-chip. The coil diameters are 120μm, 70μm, and 45μm for the U-band, W-band, and the D-band oscillators, respectively. The experimental frequency noises at 100kHz offset from the carrier are 90Hz/Hz^1/2, 300Hz/Hz^1/2, and 700Hz/Hz^1/2 at 300K, respectively. The ESR spectra are obtained by measuring the frequency variations of the single-chip oscillators as a function of the applied magnetic field. The experimental spin sensitivities, as measured with a sample of α,γ-bisdiphenylene-β-phenylallyl (BDPA)/benzene complex, are 1×10⁸spins/Hz^1/2, 4×10⁷spins/Hz^1/2, 2×10⁷spins/Hz^1/2 at 300K, respectively. We also show the possibility to perform experiments up to 360GHz by means of the higher harmonics in the microwave field produced by the integrated single-chip LC-oscillators.

Keywords: CMOS; ESR; LC-oscillator.