Abstract-Imaging and Spectroscopic Sensing with Low-Repetition-Rate Terahertz Pulses and GaN TeraFET Detectors

• Daniel VoßEmail author
• Wissem Zouaghi
• Mehran Jamshidifar
• Sebastian Boppel
• Cormac McDonnell
• James R. P. Bain
• Nils Hempler
• Graeme P. A. Malcolm
• Gareth T. Maker
• Maris Bauer
• Alvydas Lisauskas
• Adam Rämer
• Sergey A. Shevchenko
• Wolfgang Heinrich
• Viktor Krozer
• Hartmut G. Roskos

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10762-017-0447-1

Aiming for non-destructive testing and security applications, we investigate transmission-mode imaging and spectroscopic sensing using terahertz (THz) pulses from a commercial optical parametric oscillator (OPO) in combination with THz detectors based on antenna-coupled field-effect transistors (TeraFETs). The Q-switched OPO generates quasi-continuous-wave THz pulses with a peak power of up to 1 W at a repetition rate between 12 and 90 Hz. The pulses are frequency-tunable between 0.7 and 2.6 THz with a typical linewidth of 50 GHz. We explore detection with fast GaN/AlGaN TeraFETs which hold the potential for multi-pixel and homodyne detection.