Large area photoconductive terahertz emitter for 1.55 µm excitation based on an InGaAs heterostructure.

We present scalable large area terahertz (THz) emitters based on a nanoscale multilayer InGaAs/InAlAs heterostructure and a microstructured electrode pattern. The emitters are designed for pump lasers working at the telecommunication wavelength of 1.55 µm. Electric THz fields of more than 2.5 V cm⁻¹ are reached with moderate pump powers of 80 mW, the corresponding spectrum extends up to 3 THz. The saturation characteristics have been investigated for different pump laser spot sizes. For small pump powers of less than 50 mW the emitted THz field is nearly independent of the spot size, for higher pump powers and small spot sizes a clear saturation of the generated THz pulse can be observed. Hence the use of scalable emitters is especially promising for high power fibre laser systems. The spectral content of the generated radiation is nearly independent of the parameters spot size, pump power, and bias voltage, which allows for stable operation in spectroscopic applications.

THz generation at 1.55 µm excitation: six-fold increase in THz conversion efficiency by separated photoconductive and trapping regions.

We present first results on photoconductive THz emitters for 1.55µm excitation. The emitters are based on MBE grown In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As multilayer heterostructures (MLHS) with high carrier mobility. The high mobility is achieved by spatial separation of photoconductive and trapping regions. Photoconductive antennas made of these MLHS are evaluated as THz emitters in a THz time domain spectrometer (THz TDS). The high carrier mobility and effective absorption significantly increases the optical-to-THz conversion efficiency with THz bandwidth in excess of 3 THz.