Terahertz photomixing in low-temperature-grown GaAs

Elliott R. Brown; Simon Verghese; K. Alexander McIntosh

doi:10.1117/12.317346

31 July 1998 Terahertz photomixing in low-temperature-grown GaAs

Elliott R. Brown, Simon Verghese, K. Alexander McIntosh

Proceedings Volume 3357, Advanced Technology MMW, Radio, and Terahertz Telescopes; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.317346
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 1998, Kona, HI, United States

Abstract

Low-temperature-grown (LTG) GaAs offers the combination of sub-picosecond photocarrier lifetime and high breakdown electric field (greater than 5 X 10⁵ V/cm), and is grown in epitaxial films having excellent quality for microelectronic fabrication. A THz photoconductive mixer (photomixer) is formed on these films by patterning low- capacitance planar electrodes coupled to a coplanar antenna. The photomixer is conveniently pumped by two frequency-offset diode-laser beams focused on the exposed GaAs area between the electrodes. This paper summarizes the operational principles of the photomixer in contrast to a competing technique based on coherent three-wave photonic mixing. It then reviews different configurations of the photomixer as a laboratory tunable source for chemistry and metrology, and addresses some of the challenges in applying the photomixer as a local oscillator in portable spectroscopic and radiometric receivers.

Citation Download Citation

Elliott R. Brown, Simon Verghese, and K. Alexander McIntosh "Terahertz photomixing in low-temperature-grown GaAs", Proc. SPIE 3357, Advanced Technology MMW, Radio, and Terahertz Telescopes, (31 July 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.317346

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