A high signal-to-noise ratio, coherent, frequency-domain THz spectrometer employed to characterize explosive compounds

Author

Demers, Joseph R. ; Logan, Ronald T., Jr. ; Bergeron, Normand J. ; Brown, Elliott R.

Author_Institution

Emcore Corp., Alhambra, CA

fYear

2008

fDate

15-19 Sept. 2008

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

3

Abstract

A compact terahertz frequency domain spectrometer realized through photo-mixing of two distributed feedback (DFB) diode lasers in ErAs:GaAs is shown to have a signal-to-noise ratio of 80 dB*Hz at 200 GHz and 60 dB*Hz at 1 THz. Continuous frequency sweeping is demonstrated with better than 1 GHz resolution from 200 GHz to 1.85 THz. The system is employed for the characterization of several explosives.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; distributed feedback lasers; erbium compounds; explosives; gallium arsenide; microwave photonics; submillimetre wave mixers; submillimetre wave spectra; ErAs:GaAs; coherent spectrometer; continuous frequency sweeping; diode lasers; distributed feedback lasers; explosive compounds; frequency 200 GHz to 1850 GHz; frequency-domain spectrometer; photomixing; signal-to-noise ratio; terahertz spectrometer; Diode lasers; Distributed feedback devices; Explosives; Frequency; Laser mode locking; Optical pulses; Personal communication networks; Semiconductor lasers; Signal to noise ratio; Spectroscopy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves, 2008. IRMMW-THz 2008. 33rd International Conference on

Conference_Location

Pasadena, CA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2119-0

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2120-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIMW.2008.4665534

Filename

4665534