All-electronic generation and detection of terahertz free-space radiation with subpicosecond pulses

his work describes the first all-electronic system for generating and detecting freely-propagating pulses having frequency content from 6 GHz to beyond 3 terahertz. The key technologies used are monolithic Schottky diode nonlinear transmission line circuits and sampling bridges, built on GaAs and cooled cryogenically so that they produce and measure step waveforms having 880 fs fall times and 3.5 volt amplitudes, the first electrically-generated subpicosecond waveforms ever reported.;To describe how this record-setting performance was achieved, the limitations of Schottky diodes on GaAs are discussed, along with measurements and models to illustrate how the cutoff frequencies of these devices improve by...