A photomixer driven terahertz dipole antenna with high input resistance and gain

Abstract

A terahertz (THz) antenna is proposed that offers high input resistance and gain in the presence of an electrically thick GaAs substrate. The antenna is centrally fed using two vertical probes connected to a photomixer on a thin low temperature grown gallium arsenide (LTG-GaAs) film which is supported by the GaAs substrate. An input impedance of ∼ 3.3 kΩ has been achieved using a dipole antenna that is printed on a thin dielectric slab, and isolated from the supporting substrate using a metal ground plane. A square aperture has been introduced to facilitate the illumination of the photomixer with two laser beams. Furthermore, a frequency selective surface (FSS) has been incorporated in the configuration, which results in a broadside gain of ∼ 19 dBi at a resonance frequency of 0.97 THz.