Testing of Josephson Spectrometer with Waveguide Coupling

One of the challenges in public security is the quick and reliable identification of threat liquids in bottles, when vapour analysis is not possible. Recently, we demonstrated that it is possible to rapidly identify liquids by EM measurements of their dielectric functions in the sub-THz range with a high-T_c Josephson spectrometer. Following this approach, we have developed a Josephson spectrometer with a new radiation coupling system, based on dielectric waveguides. In this paper, we present the results of spectroscopic measurements on liquid samples of various purities including 30% H₂O₂/H₂O, performed using our Josephson spectrometer with waveguide coupling. Also, the signal and noise characteristics of a classical Josephson detector used in our liquid identifier were numerically simulated and the power dynamic range was estimated for a wide spread of junction parameters.