Abstract

The optoelectronic generation and detection of extremely short electrical pulses with bandwidths exceeding 1 THz have made it possible to study materials and electronic structures in a previously barely accessible region of the electromagnetic spectrum.¹ These electrical pulses can be propagated in free space and can be collimated and focused with such optical elements as lenses and mirrors.² We use these submillimeter-wave electrical pulses to study the electronic structure of low- and high-temperature superconductors,³ intersubband absorption in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells, and resonance splitting in coupled quantum wells. We will also discuss the anisotropic dielectric constants of the two-dimensional electron gases in semiconductor quantum wells and the weakly coupled conducting layers of high-temperature superconductors.

© 1990 Optical Society of America