Intense terahertz radiation from a large-area photoconductive device.


Intense terahertz radiation from a large-area photoconductive device.

Dreyhaupt, A.; Winnerl, S.; Dekorsy, T.; Helm, M.

We present an approach of photoconductive terahertz (THz) generation providing a broad bandwidth and exceptional electric field amplitude. A large-area interdigitated two-electrode structure is applied to a GaAs substrate to offer high electric fields. Photocarriers excited by a Ti:Sapphire oscillator laser with MHz repetition rate are accelerated there, yielding an intense THz output. An appropriate binary mask covers every second electrode interval and carriers are excited in uniform electric field areas only. Hence contrary carrier acceleration and destructive interference is avoided. Due to the periodic nature of the electrode structure, the size of the excitation spot on the photoconductive THz emitter can be varied. This results in a THz beam of variable divergence. By electro-optic sampling the THz radiation is detected and characteristic properties of the THz source are measured. For an excitation spot diameter of about 300 μm, which corresponds to the central wavelength of the THz pulses, the THz generation is most efficient. THz radiation with an average power of 145 µW is generated with an efficiency of 2 × 10^-4 for the conversion from NIR to THz power. Furthermore, the THz radiation has excellent focusing properties. A Gaussian beam profile with a diameter (FWHM) of less than 1.4 of the central wavelength of the THz pulses is found. The THz field amplitude in the center of the focused THz beam is 1.5 kV/cm, which is almost one order of magnitude more of what is achieved with conventional semi-large aperture photoconductive emitters and a similar excitation spot diameter. Exceptionally large signal-to-noise ratios are achieved by modulating the bias voltage in the kHz range and using lock-in technique. We suggest that the THz power can be further improved by a sufficient cooling system, e.g. water cooling. Furthermore the use of LT GaAs instead of semiinsulating GaAs can result in larger THz bandwidth.

Keywords: optical; infrared (IR) spectroscopy; photoconductivity

  • Lecture (Conference)
    MRS Spring Meeting 2006, 17.-21.04.2006, San Francisco, USA

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-8480
Publ.-Id: 8480