High-efficiency terahertz sources based on plasmonic contact electrodes

Abstract

Use of plasmonic contact electrodes in photoconductive terahertz sources offers significantly higher optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiencies and terahertz radiation powers by mitigating the inherent tradeoff between photoconductor quantum efficiency and ultrafast operation. We demonstrate that optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiencies as high as 7.5% and milliwatt-level terahertz radiation powers can be offered by plasmonic photoconductive terahertz sources in both continuous-wave and pulsed operation.