Development of a chip-based micromachined THz-spectrometer

Abstract

We present a coplanar waveguide design with integrated photoconductive transceivers; the system is fabricated on a 1.4-μm-thick SiO2/Si3N4 membrane supported by a micromachined silicon substrate. LTG GaAs is used as photon absorbing material of the photoconductive switches allowing full electron mobility at strongly reduced carrier-lifetime. By combining this circuit with a bonded sample cell, we are able to measure transmitted, reflected intensity and its phase correlations. The system was characterized by theoretical calculation and simulations.