A Photoconductive THz Detector Based on a Superlattice Heterostructure with Plasmonic Amplification

Abstract

A highly sensitive terahertz (THz) detector based on a photoconductive antenna (PCA) with plasmonic amplification on the basis of an InGaAs/InAlAs superlattice heterostructure is proposed. A noticeable increase in the photocurrent recorded by a plasmonic PCA detector and the signal-to-noise ratio was experimentally detected compared to the same parameters for the PCA detector without plasmonic electrodes. The efficiency of plasmonic electrodes has been experimentally confirmed by pulsed THz spectroscopy by measuring the dependence of the detector’s THz signal amplitude on the polarization of the incident pump laser radiation.