Hot-electrons in superconducting nanostructures for detection of terahertz radiation

The paper highlights different types of superconducting hot-electron bolometers for terahertz radiation. The hot-electron normal-spot model provides a universal tool to describe the detection of radiation in superconducting nanostructures. Introducing the current dependent velocity of the boundaries of the normal spot simplifies the model equations drastically and allows for an analytical solution. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated using the hot-electron bolometer mixer as an example.