Monolithic optoelectronic circuit design for on-chip terahertz applications

TL;DR

This paper presents a monolithic on-chip terahertz platform utilizing coplanar stripline technology with capacitive coupling to enhance mode purity, bandwidth, and signal integrity for advanced spectroscopy and electronics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel monolithic coplanar stripline design with capacitive coupling that improves THz generation, transmission, and detection on-chip, addressing key challenges in mode purity and bandwidth.

Findings

Achieved 0.05-1.4 THz operational frequency range.

Demonstrated suppression of parasitic modes improves signal quality.

Validated design through simulations and experiments.

Abstract

We demonstrate a monolithic coplanar stripline platform for on-chip terahertz (THz) generation, transmission, and detection, addressing key challenges of mode purity, bandwidth, and referencing. Capacitive coupling of the photoconductive generator switch enforces pure odd-mode propagation, increases THz field strength, and extends the operational frequency range, achieving 0.05-1.4 THz. Our architecture enables fully monolithic fabrication with amorphous silicon switches, in situ field referencing, and galvanic isolation between generation and detection. Finite-element simulations and experiments confirm that suppressing parasitic modes improves signal integrity, providing a robust platform for high-fidelity THz spectroscopy, ultrafast electronics, and nanoscale quantum materials research.