Optimized THz emission from intrinsic Josephson junctions

Abstract

Nearly every wavelength from dc to x-rays significantly benefits today's society with a notable exception: the THz or sub-millimeter band. Applications in this range are widespread, penetrating fields ranging from national security to medicine, but remain largely under-utilized due to the difficulty of creating, manipulating, and detecting this type of radiation. Our research focus is THz source development using superconductive Josephson junctions to potentially address the lack of compact, efficient, and tunable source of continuous THz radiation. We review relevant applications for such a source and report an optimized design of a miniature THz emitter using single crystal intrinsic Josephson junctions.