THz-emitters based on ballistic transport in semiconductor nanostructures

A novel concept for THz-photomixers based on semiconductor nanostructures with strongly increased conversion efficiency is presented. In THz-photomixers, typically based on photoconductivity in "low-temperature-grown-GaAs." (LT-GaAs), the performance is typically limited by the (very low)...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Malzer, S., Eckardt, M., Schwanhausser, A., Renner, F., Friedrich, A., Pohl, P., Driscoll, D., Hanson, M., Kiesel, P., Gossard, A.C., Dohler, G.H.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Ballistic transport
Charge carriers
Design optimization
Electrons
Performance gain
Photoconductivity
PIN photodiodes
Radiative recombination
Semiconductor nanostructures
Spontaneous emission
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A novel concept for THz-photomixers based on semiconductor nanostructures with strongly increased conversion efficiency is presented. In THz-photomixers, typically based on photoconductivity in "low-temperature-grown-GaAs." (LT-GaAs), the performance is typically limited by the (very low) photoconductive gain and depends critically on an extremely short lifetime of photo-generated charge carriers in LT-GaAs. In contrast to those devices, in our photomixer the gain does not depend on the recombination lifetime but only on the transit time and on the path length of the photo-generated electrons within suitably designed p-i-n nanostructures, which both can be optimised for (primarily) ballistic transport. In addition, impedance matching to the attached antenna can be achieved.
DOI:10.1109/IMOC.2003.1244833