A new nonlinear photoconductive terahertz radiation source based on photon-activated charge domain quenched mode*

Abstract

We present a high-performance terahertz (THz) radiation source based on the photon-activated charge domain (PACD) quenched mode of GaAs photoconductive antennas (GaAs PCA). The THz radiation characteristics of the GaAs PCA under different operating modes are studied. Compared with the linear mode, the intensity of THz wave radiated by the GaAs PCA can be greatly enhanced due to the avalanche multiplication effect of carriers in the PACD quenched mode. The results show that when the carrier multiplication ratio is 16.92, the peak-to-peak value of THz field radiated in the PACD quenched mode increases by as much as about 4.19 times compared to the maximum values in the linear mode.