Note: Coherent detection of terahertz radiation employing a continuous wave optical parametric source

Jens Kiessling; Rosita Sowade; Iván Cámara Mayorga; Karsten Buse; Ingo Breunig

doi:10.1063/1.3553397

Note: Coherent detection of terahertz radiation employing a continuous wave optical parametric source

Rev Sci Instrum. 2011 Feb;82(2):026108. doi: 10.1063/1.3553397.

Authors

Jens Kiessling¹, Rosita Sowade, Iván Cámara Mayorga, Karsten Buse, Ingo Breunig

Affiliation

¹ Institute of Physics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany. jenkie@uni-bonn.de

PMID: 21361647
DOI: 10.1063/1.3553397

Abstract

The combination of an all-optical terahertz source with a photoconductive antenna to achieve coherent detection is presented. This approach aims to overcome the frequency limits introduced by optoelectronic terahertz sources commonly used. Here the Gaussian-shaped and linearly polarized terahertz waves are generated by a continuous wave optical parametric oscillator with a power of 3 μW at 1.4 THz. The infrared signal light of the optical parametric oscillator can be used to coherently detect the generated terahertz wave with a photoconductive antenna. As a proof-of-principle experiment we determine the thickness profile of a plastic lens using phase shifting interferometry.