Highly collimated and directional continous-wave Terahertz emission by photomixing in semiconductor device arrays

S. Preu; S. Malzer; G. H. Döhler; J. Zhang; Z. H. Lu; L. J. Wang

doi:10.1117/12.662847

19 April 2006 Highly collimated and directional continous-wave Terahertz emission by photomixing in semiconductor device arrays

S. Preu, S. Malzer, G. H. Döhler, J. Zhang, Z. H. Lu, L. J. Wang

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6194, Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Photonics; 61940F (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.662847
Event: SPIE Photonics Europe, 2006, Strasbourg, France

Abstract

CW-photomixing semiconductor devices have hardly exceeded an output power of 10 μW around 1 THz. Availability of a few mW, however, would stimulate the demand for THz-imaging, -scanning, and spectroscopy. Increasing the poor power conversion efficiency from the optical pump to THz-output is most desirable. On the other hand, the thermal threshold "per pixel" is limited to about 100 mW of pump laser power. So both limits have to be pushed towards higher performance. In this paper we report on arrays of photomixing devices to overcome the thermal threshold limit. If each individual photomixer in the array can be driven to the same thermal threshold power, the overall THz output can be larger by a factor N\times M for an array. The power of directed emission, however, can be increased even by a factor (N x M)² compared to the individual device. In addition, by adjusting the two laser beams slightly noncollinear, a directional control of the emitted THz-beam is achieved. The angular difference of the incident beams is enhanced by the ratio of the THz-wavelength (≈300 μm) and the optical wavelength (≈0.85 μm) with regard to direction of the emitted THz-beam. Thus, a full steering of the THz beam can be achieved by tuning this angle by less than 1 degree (17.5 mrad).

Citation Download Citation

S. Preu, S. Malzer, G. H. Döhler, J. Zhang, Z. H. Lu, and L. J. Wang "Highly collimated and directional continous-wave Terahertz emission by photomixing in semiconductor device arrays", Proc. SPIE 6194, Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Photonics, 61940F (19 April 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.662847

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