Photoconductive antenna element

Generation and Detection of the Terahertz Radiation Using a Photoconductive Antenna Element... 

Several different types of wide-band terahertz-radiation generation element are available these include a photoconductive antenna element, a nonlinear optical effective element (NOE), and a surface outgoing radiational-type semiconductor device. In this subsection, brief descriptions of the most commonly used PCAs are given. 

Figure 19.3 Schematic illustration of the photoconductive antenna element (PCA). For details, see text.

Perhaps the most important elements in THz systems are sources and detectors. Sources are vaguely classified into two categories pulsed broadband and continuous narrowband. The most common approaches for generating broadband THz pulses are photoconductive antenna and optical rectification, while voltage controlled oscillators or dielectric resonators are the two widely used sources for generating low power narrowband continuous THz waves [5]. 

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