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Efficient Detection of 3 THz Radiation from Quantum Cascade Laser Using Silicon CMOS Detectors

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Abstract

In this paper, we report on efficient detection of the radiation emitted by a THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) using an antenna-coupled field effect transistor (TeraFET). In the limiting case when all radiated power would be collected, the investigated TeraFET can show up to 230 V/W responsivity with the noise equivalent power being as low as 85 pW/\(\sqrt {\text {Hz}}\) at 3.1 THz, which is several times lower than that of the typical Golay cell. A combination of the QCL and a set of off-axis parabolic mirrors with 3-inch and 2-inch focal lengths was used to measure the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the TeraFET. The practically achieved SNR was five times lower than that of the Golay cell and two orders of magnitude lower than a bolometer’s. However, TeraFETs are much faster and do not need a signal modulation, thus can be used both in a continuous mode for power monitoring or for investigation of transient processes on a sub-microsecond time scale.

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Acknowledgements

The Vilnius team acknowledges Research Council of Lithuania for the partial financial support under contract no. TAP LZ-06/2015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiophysics Department, Vilnius University, 10257, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Kęstutis Ikamas & Alvydas Lisauskas

  2. Institute of University Studies, The General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, Šilo Str. 5A, 10322, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Kęstutis Ikamas

  3. Physikalisches Institut, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Alvydas Lisauskas, Sebastian Boppel & Hartmut G. Roskos

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Qing Hu

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  1. Kęstutis Ikamas
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  2. Alvydas Lisauskas
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  3. Sebastian Boppel
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  4. Qing Hu
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  5. Hartmut G. Roskos
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Correspondence to Kęstutis Ikamas.

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Ikamas, K., Lisauskas, A., Boppel, S. et al. Efficient Detection of 3 THz Radiation from Quantum Cascade Laser Using Silicon CMOS Detectors. J Infrared Milli Terahz Waves 38, 1183–1188 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10762-017-0407-9

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