Beam Waist Properties of Spiral Antenna Coupled HEB Mixers at Supra-THz Frequencies

We have simulated and measured the beam properties of lens-antenna coupled hot electron bolometer mixers at a few supra-terahertz frequencies between 1.4 and 5.3 THz. The quasi-optical structures consist of an elliptical lens and a logarithmic spiral antenna. The model used for our simulations consists of a finite-element analysis to simulate...

Time-Domain Modelling of Pulsed Photoconducting Sources - Part II: Characterization of an LT GaAs Bow-Tie Antenna

Drude's description of the response of low-temperature gallium arsenide to optical pulse excitation is used to evaluate the components of a time-domain Norton equivalent circuit of a photoconductive antenna (PCA) source. The saturation of the terahertz (THz) radiated power occurring at large optical excitation levels was previously associated...

On the Power Radiated by Photo Conductive Sources

The time evolution of voltages and currents in a pulsed photo conductive antenna (PCA) source is evaluated resorting to a rigorous procedure that stems from semiconductor physics first, to define the phenomena involved in the generation of the photocurrent, and then relies on an equivalent circuit in time domain, providing a direct estimation...

Terahertz Band-Pass Filters for Wideband Superconducting On-chip Filter-bank Spectrometers

A superconducting microstrip half-wavelength resonator is proposed as a suitable band-pass filter for broadband moderate spectral resolution spectroscopy for terahertz (THz) astronomy. The proposed filter geometry has a free spectral range of an octave of bandwidth without introducing spurious resonances, reaches a high coupling efficiency in...

Wideband Modeling of CMOS Schottky Barrier Diode Detectors for THz Radiometry

A complete system modeling and characterization of a wideband differential terahertz (THz) direct detector, integrated in a commercial CMOS technology, is presented. The detector consists of a recently developed double leaky-slot lens antenna that operates from 200 to 600 GHz in combination with a differential Schottky barrier diode (SBD) direct...

Norton Equivalent Circuit for Pulsed Photoconductive Antennas - Part II: Experimental Validation

This second part of two papers' sequence presents the experimental validation of the Norton equivalent circuit model for pulsed photoconductive antennas (PCAs) provided in the first paper of the sequence. To this goal, different prototypes of photoconductive antenna sources have been manufactured and assembled. The average powers radiated and...

Norton Equivalent Circuit for Pulsed Photoconductive Antennas-Part I: Theoretical Model

A novel equivalent circuit for pulsed photoconductive sources is introduced for describing the coupling between the photoconductive gap and the antenna. The proposed circuit effectively describes the mechanism of feeding the antenna by the semiconductor when this latter is illuminated by a laser operating in a pulsed mode. Starting from the...

Optical System Design for Noncontact, Normal Incidence, THz Imaging of in vivo Human Cornea

Reflection-mode terahertz (THz) imaging of corneal tissue water content (CTWC) is a proposed method for early accurate detection and study of corneal diseases. Despite promising results from ex vivo and in vivo cornea studies, interpretation of the reflectivity data is confounded by the contact between corneal tissue and dielectric windows used...