Abstract-Free-space electro-optic detection of continuous-wave terahertz radiation

Ajay Nahata,  James T. Yardley, Tony F. Heinz,

https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.125065

We present a scheme for the coherent detection of freely propagating continuous-wave terahertz radiation using electro-optic detection. The terahertz radiation is generated by photomixing two single-mode laser diodes in an antenna fabricated on low-temperature-grown GaAs. This radiation is detected using the electro-optic effect in 〈110〉 ZnTe. In contrast to typical terahertz detection techniques, this is a frequency-domain measurement that relies on coherent up-conversion of the terahertz field combined with optical homodyning to suppress background noise.