Microstructured large-area photoconductive terahertz emitters driven at high average power

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Khalili, Mohsen, Vogel, Tim, Wang, Yicheng, Mansourzadeh, Samira, Singh, Abhishek, Winnnerl, Stephan, Saraceno, Clara J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Khalili, Mohsen
Vogel, Tim
Wang, Yicheng
Mansourzadeh, Samira
Singh, Abhishek
Winnnerl, Stephan
Saraceno, Clara J.
author_facet Khalili, Mohsen
Vogel, Tim
Wang, Yicheng
Mansourzadeh, Samira
Singh, Abhishek
Winnnerl, Stephan
Saraceno, Clara J.
contents Emitters based on photoconductive materials excited by ultrafast lasers are well established and popular devices for THz generation. However, so far, these emitters, both photoconductive antennas and large area emitters, were mostly explored using driving lasers with moderate average powers (either fiber lasers with up to hundreds of milliwatts or Ti:Sapphire systems up to few watts). In this paper, we explore the use of high power, MHz repetition rate Ytterbium (Yb) based oscillator for THz emission using a microstructured large area photoconductive emitter, consist of semi insulating GaAs with a 10 by 10 mm2 active area. As a driving source, we use a frequency doubled home built high average power ultrafast Yb oscillator, delivering 22 W of average power, 115 fs pulses with 91 MHz repetition rate at a central wavelength of 516 nm. When applying 9 W of average power (after an optical chopper with a duty cycle of 50 percent) on the structure without optimized heatsinking, we obtain 65 uW THz average power, 4 THz bandwidth; furthermore, we safely apply up to 18 W of power on the structure without observing damage. We investigate the impact of excitation power, bias voltage, optical fluence, and their interplay on the emitter performance and explore in detail the sources of thermal load originating from electrical and optical power. Optical power is found to have a more critical impact on LAE saturation than electrical power, thus optimized heatsinking will allow us to improve the conversion efficiency in the near future towards much higher emitter power. This work paves the way towards achieving hundreds of MHz or even GHz repetition rates, high power THz sources based on photoconductive emitters, that are of great interest for example for future THz imaging applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_13940
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Microstructured large-area photoconductive terahertz emitters driven at high average power
Khalili, Mohsen
Vogel, Tim
Wang, Yicheng
Mansourzadeh, Samira
Singh, Abhishek
Winnnerl, Stephan
Saraceno, Clara J.
Optics
Emitters based on photoconductive materials excited by ultrafast lasers are well established and popular devices for THz generation. However, so far, these emitters, both photoconductive antennas and large area emitters, were mostly explored using driving lasers with moderate average powers (either fiber lasers with up to hundreds of milliwatts or Ti:Sapphire systems up to few watts). In this paper, we explore the use of high power, MHz repetition rate Ytterbium (Yb) based oscillator for THz emission using a microstructured large area photoconductive emitter, consist of semi insulating GaAs with a 10 by 10 mm2 active area. As a driving source, we use a frequency doubled home built high average power ultrafast Yb oscillator, delivering 22 W of average power, 115 fs pulses with 91 MHz repetition rate at a central wavelength of 516 nm. When applying 9 W of average power (after an optical chopper with a duty cycle of 50 percent) on the structure without optimized heatsinking, we obtain 65 uW THz average power, 4 THz bandwidth; furthermore, we safely apply up to 18 W of power on the structure without observing damage. We investigate the impact of excitation power, bias voltage, optical fluence, and their interplay on the emitter performance and explore in detail the sources of thermal load originating from electrical and optical power. Optical power is found to have a more critical impact on LAE saturation than electrical power, thus optimized heatsinking will allow us to improve the conversion efficiency in the near future towards much higher emitter power. This work paves the way towards achieving hundreds of MHz or even GHz repetition rates, high power THz sources based on photoconductive emitters, that are of great interest for example for future THz imaging applications.
title Microstructured large-area photoconductive terahertz emitters driven at high average power
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.13940