Active terahertz two-wire waveguides (phase I)

有源太赫兹两线波导（第一阶段）

• 批准号: 486834-2015
• 负责人: Morandotti, Roberto
• 金额: $ 9.11万
• 依托单位: Institut national de la recherche scientifique
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Idea to Innovation
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=585804
• 关键词: Active; terahertz; two; wire; waveguides

The present proposal deals with the development and demonstration of commercial prototypes for a new class of compact and portable Terahertz-Time Domain Spectroscopy (THz-TDS) systems, based on the recent realization of active two-wire waveguides. Our invention, called THz Two-Wire Transmitter (THz-TWT), has been developed by the PI of this proposal (Professor Morandotti) and his team. Thanks to this technology, it is possible to generate THz radiation directly within the guiding structure, thus allowing us to overcome the significant problems associated with a poor coupling efficiency and mode mismatch. The demonstration of an active two-wire waveguide made by the embodiment of a gallium arsenide piece (playing the role of the THz emitter) between the two metallic wires at the basis of the proposed device results in the generation of a THz electric field directly within the guiding structure. By comparing the coupling efficiency of the active configuration with that of the standard case, in which the radiation is generated outside the waveguide, we reported a 63 times higher energy throughput for the same initial conditions. Compact THz-TDS will then consist of a fiber based femtosecond laser directly connected to our active waveguides, a delay line and a sample holder. Out-coupling from the active waveguides can be significantly improved by introducing horn-shaped tapers at the end of the waveguide. Such geometry for the active waveguide will facilitate the irradiation of the sample and the back-coupling of THz radiation into the detector. Our proposed system will thus overcome the limitations, typically associated to standard THz-TDS systems, by using the proposed active waveguides for beam steering and guiding, in a novel and scalable configuration. In turn, this will significantly reduce the total size of the system by cutting the supporting optics while increasing its portability and compactness. The main objective of the proposed project is to push forward the development of our invention with the aim to increase the value of our intellectual property and to enlarge the number of potential customers who might be interested in our technology, consisting of a new generation of ultra-compact THz-TDS systems.

本提案涉及的商业原型的开发和演示的一个新的类紧凑型和便携式太赫兹时域光谱（THZ-TDS）系统，基于最近实现的有源双线波导。我们的发明，称为太赫兹双线发射机（THz-TWT），已经由该提案的PI（Morandotti教授）和他的团队开发。由于这种技术，可以直接在引导结构内产生THz辐射，从而使我们能够克服与耦合效率差和模式失配相关的重大问题。在所提出的装置的基础上，由两条金属线之间的砷化镓件（扮演THz发射器的角色）的实施例制成的有源双线波导的演示导致直接在引导结构内产生THz电场。通过比较有源配置的耦合效率与标准情况下的耦合效率，其中辐射在波导外部产生，我们报告了相同初始条件下的63倍高的能量吞吐量。紧凑的THz-TDS将由一个直接连接到我们的有源波导，延迟线和样品保持器的光纤飞秒激光器组成。通过在波导端部引入喇叭形锥体，可以显著改善有源波导的外耦合。有源波导的这种几何形状将促进样品的照射和THz辐射到检测器中的反向耦合。因此，我们提出的系统将克服通常与标准THz-TDS系统相关的限制，通过使用所提出的有源波导进行光束转向和引导，以新颖且可扩展的配置。反过来，这将通过切割支撑光学器件来显著减小系统的总尺寸，同时增加其便携性和紧凑性。该项目的主要目标是推动我们发明的发展，旨在增加我们知识产权的价值，并扩大可能对我们的技术感兴趣的潜在客户数量，包括新一代超紧凑型THz-TDS系统。