High-power tunable terahertz generation based on photoconductive antenna arrays

Abstract

A new scheme for a compact, continuously tunable terahertz source based on photoconductive antenna arrays is presented. Narrowband terahertz radiation is generated by superposition of time-delayed wideband radiations from an array of sub-picosecond photoconductive antennas. We demonstrate an 8 μW average power, radiation bandwidth of 0.05 THz, and a tuning range of 0.65–1.4 THz, through a 2.5×10 mm2 photoconductive antenna array prototype.