Room-temperature continuous-wave Terahertz generation with an intersubband mid-infrared photomixer
Résumé
A Terahertz photomixer pumped by mid-infrared photons at 10µm wavelength is demonstrated. The device active-region consists of an AlGaAs-GaAs multi-quantum-well heterostructure embedded into a matrix of metallic patch-antenna resonators, electrically connected to the arms of a log-spiral antenna. Photocurrent generation through intersubband absorption is obtained by illuminating the device at normal incidence with two single-mode quantum-cascade-lasers operating in continuous-wave. By tuning their difference frequency we obtain free-space generation up to 1THz.