Enhancing the stability of a continuous-wave terahertz system by photocurrent normalization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple photocurrent normalization method that significantly improves the stability of continuous-wave terahertz systems by reducing measurement uncertainties caused by photomixer responsivity drifts and optical power fluctuations.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel normalization technique using DC photocurrents to enhance terahertz system stability under varying environmental conditions.

Findings

Normalized signal changes less than 0.3% with 10% optical power reduction

Stability improvement is significant for non-ideal environmental conditions

Method reduces measurement uncertainty due to responsivity drifts

Abstract

In a continuous-wave terahertz system based on photomixing, the measured amplitude of the terahertz signal shows an uncertainty due to drifts of the responsivities of the photomixers and of the optical power illuminating the photomixers. We report on a simple method to substantially reduce this uncertainty. By normalizing the amplitude to the DC photocurrents in both the transmitter and receiver photomixers, we achieve a significant increase of the stability. If, e.g., the optical power of one laser is reduced by 10%, the normalized signal is expected to change by only 0.3%, i.e., less than the typical uncertainty due to short-term fluctuations. This stabilization can be particularly valuable for terahertz applications in non-ideal environmental conditions outside of a temperature-stabilized laboratory.