Characterization of an optoelectronic terahertz beam system

Author

van Exter, Martin ; Grischkowsky, Daniel R.

Author_Institution

IBM Thomas J. Watson Res. Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

Volume

38

Issue

11

fYear

1990

fDate

11/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1684

Lastpage

1691

Abstract

The performance of an optoelectronic terahertz (THz) beam system is described. The transmitter operation is based on the repetitive, subpicosecond laser excitation of a Hertzian dipole antenna embedded in a charged coplanar line. With this transmitter electromagnetic beams of 1/2 cycle THz pulses at a repetition rate of 100 MHz are produced. The associated optoelectronic receiver is gated in synchronism with the excitation of the transmitter by subpicosecond pulses from the same laser source. With this receiver, the 10-nW beams of THz pulses were observed with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 10000:1. Several sources contributing to the noise of the receiver are discussed, together with ways to reduce them. With an integration time of 125 ms, a signal-to-noise ratio of 1 is obtained for a THz beam with an average power of 10^-16 W. The receiver operates in the sampling mode and has a time resolution of 0.5 ps

Keywords

laser beam applications; noise; optoelectronic devices; receivers; submillimetre wave devices; transmitters; 0.5 to 1.5 THz; 10 nW; FIR detector; Hertzian dipole antenna; SNR; THz pulses; charged coplanar line; laser source; noise; optoelectronic receiver; optoelectronic terahertz beam system; receiver noise; sampling mode; submillimetre wave region; subpicosecond laser excitation; subpicosecond pulses; transmitter operation; Dipole antennas; EMP radiation effects; Laser beams; Laser excitation; Laser noise; Noise reduction; Optical pulses; Sampling methods; Signal to noise ratio; Transmitters;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/22.60016

Filename

60016