A Photonic Local Oscillator Source for Far-IR and Sub-mm Heterodyne Receivers
Abstract
We presented a recently developed compact solid-state far-infrared and sub-mm (terahertz) source. The radiation is generated by the optical heterodyne conversion (photomixing) in a low-temperature-grown GaAs (LTG-GaAs) photoconductor with a sub-picosecond response time. In photomixing, two frequency-offset laser beams are used to illuminate the photoconductor, resulting in the photocurrent oscillation at the difference frequency that drives a planar antenna on the device. Such a photonic source has the great advantage of compactness, wide tuning range and high efficiency over existing electronic devices, and would be suitable for use as local oscillators in heterodyne receivers for IR/sub-mm astronomy.
- Publication:
-
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science Report
- Pub Date:
- December 2000
- Bibcode:
- 2000ISASS..14..337M
- Keywords:
-
- INSTRUMENT;
- FAR-INFRARED;
- SUBMILLIMETER;
- RECEIVER;
- LOCAL OSCILLATOR