Photoconductive antennas (PCAs) have been extensively utilized for the generation and detection of both pulsed broadband and single frequency continuous wave terahertz (THz) band radiation. These devices form the basis of many THz imaging and spectroscopy systems, which have demonstrated promising applications in various industries and research fields. The development of THz PCA technology through the last 30 years is reviewed. The key modalities of improving device performance are identified, and literature is reviewed to summarize the progress made in these areas. The goal of this review is to provide a collection of all relevant literature to bring researchers up to date on the current state and remaining challenges of THz PCA technology.
In this work a new plasmonic thin-film based terahertz photoconductive antenna is proposed. The computational method utilized to design the antenna is outlined, as well as the steps and preliminary results for the fabrication and characterization of the device. The model predicted over two orders of magnitude increase in the peak photocurrent as compared to a conventional device design, while slightly reducing the width of the induced current pulse. This indicates that the proposed design will be effective as a high efficiency terahertz emitter. In addition to the computational modeling, preliminary results demonstrating the proposed fabrication processes and experimental characterization are presented. It is demonstrated that when using a pyroelectric detector to quantify the output terahertz power it is important to first quantify the power of the IR photons generated by thermal relaxation in the device.
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