Generation of terahertz radiation by photomixing with dual- and multiple-mode lasers

Abstract

Photomixing with dual-mode and multi-mode lasers in the sub-terahertz frequency region is presented with a description on the principle and efficiency of photomixing on low-temperature-grown-GaAs photoconductive antennae for generation of continuous-wave terahertz (THz) radiation. The difference frequency stabilization by the common-mode-rejection effect in the dual-mode lasers is discussed with several reported experimental results. It is also shown that generation and detection of broadband sub-THz radiation is possible by photomixing with multi-mode semiconductor lasers on the emitter and detector photoconductive antennae (multi-mode-laser-diode-based terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, MLD-TDS). The MLD-TDS system can be a low-cost and broadband spectrometer in the sub-THz frequency region, which is useful for measurement of complex refractive indices and carrier densities of semiconductor wafers.