Enhance the Optical Intensity of a THz Photomixer Using a Plasmonic Material Filled Two Dimensional Photonic Crystal

• Published in: Antennas and Propagation Conference 2019 (APC-2019) p. 15
• Main Authors: Xiaohang Li, Khamas, S.K
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Stevenage, UK IET 2019; The Institution of Engineering & Technology
• Subjects: Gallium arsenide; Low temperature; Microwave photonics; Optical elements, devices and systems; Optical materials; Other optical system components; Photonic bandgap materials; Photonic crystals; Plasmonics; Rods; Substrates; optical elements; photoconductivity; terahertz wave generation; incident optical source power; optical intensity; microwave photonics; plasmonic effect; THz power; plasmonic material filled two-dimensional photonic crystal; 2D-PhC; plasmonic rods; optical E-field; adjacent rods; gallium arsenide; electrodes; low temperature grown gallium arsenide; GaAs; THz photomixer; optical power; air-gaps; plasmonics; reflector; photonic crystals; photoconductive substrate; LT-GaAs; III-V semiconductors
• ISBN: 1839531703; 9781839531705
• DOI: 10.1049/cp.2019.0703

A THz photomixer has been incorporated with a two dimensional photonic crystal, 2D-PhC, as a reflector to confine more optical power in the low temperature grown Gallium Arsenide, LT-GaAs, photoconductive substrate. Inserteing plasmonic rods in the air-gaps of the 2D-PhC is proposed in order to conserve the power in the substrate as well as generate an extra plasmonic effect between electrodes and rods as well as between the adjacent rods. The simulation results demonstrate that the optical E-field can be enhanced by 2.1 times. Consequently, the generated THz power can be improved by a factor of 18 for the same incident optical source power.