Norton Equivalent Circuit for Pulsed Photoconductive Antennas—Part II: Experimental Validation

Abstract

This second part of two papers’ sequence presents the experimental validation of the Norton equivalent circuit model for pulsed photoconductive antennas (PCAs) provided in the first paper of the sequence. To this goal, different prototypes of photoconductive antenna sources have been manufactured and assembled. The average powers radiated and their pertinent energy spectral densities have been measured. In order to obtain a validation of the original equivalent circuit proposed, an auxiliary electromagnetic analysis of the complete setup, including the quasi-optical (QO) link for the signals from the antenna feeds to the detectors had to be developed. By using the combined theoretical model (circuit and quasi-optics), an excellent agreement is achieved between the measured power and the power estimated. This agreement fully validates the circuit model, which can now be used to design new PCAs, including optical and electrical features of the semiconductor materials, as well as the details of the antenna gaps and the purely QO components.