Abstract
Coherent detection of free-space THz electrical transients has been based on two techniques: (1) photoconductive gating of a dipole antenna, in which the measured photocurrent is the convolution of the THz electrical transient with the short but still nonzero material photoconductivity response (with typical carrier lifetimes ≥ 0.5 ps), and (2), interferometric characterization, in which the observed signal is an autocorrelation, the deconvolution of which requires some kind of assumption about the waveform of the transient. It is clear that THz waveforms are not resolved directly by these techniques. For some investigations, such as generation of THz pulses via optical rectification [1] or by carrier transport [2], it is desired to measure the THz waveform as accurately as possible. Here, we describe a novel coherent detector for THz pulses which utilizes the parallel-field excitonic electroabsorption effect (EEE) in a GaAs multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structure.
© 1992 Optical Society of America
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