Modeling and performance analysis of photoconductive antennas for THz generation

Photoconductive antennas are devices capable of generating THz waves. In this thesis, we propose a model of THz wave generation in photoconductive antennas based on the Dude model. The derived equations explain the THz radiation when an optical pulse illuminates a photoconductor with an applied bias...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Schönenberger Solà, David
Tipo de recurso: tesis de maestría
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/374815
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/374815
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Photoconductivity
Terahertz technology
Antennas (Electronics)
Photoconductive
THz wave generation
THz antenna.
Fotoconductivitat
Antenes (Electrònica)
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Radiocomunicació i exploració electromagnètica::Antenes i agrupacions d'antenes
Descripción
Sumario:Photoconductive antennas are devices capable of generating THz waves. In this thesis, we propose a model of THz wave generation in photoconductive antennas based on the Dude model. The derived equations explain the THz radiation when an optical pulse illuminates a photoconductor with an applied bias field. Furthermore, we derive an additional term appearing in the Drude equation that accounts for the generation of carriers with zero velocity. The model includes space-charge screening through a geometrical factor and radiation screening through an effective antenna impedance. The system is solved numerically using the iterative fixed-point method and Anderson acceleration. The fixed-point method convergence is limited, but Anderson acceleration can converge for a broader range of parameters. Analyzing the photocurrent at different optical powers, we find that it saturates at high optical powers due to the slowdown of the dynamics by the screening fields.