Terahertz emission from interdigitated photoconductive antennas based on Ge-on-Si

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel, scalable interdigitated photoconductive antenna using Ge-on-Si for efficient terahertz emission up to 2.5 THz, with improved fabrication simplicity and device robustness.

Contribution

It introduces a new design of interdigitated photoconductive antenna with a metal-insulator-semiconductor interface using Ge-on-Si, enhancing scalability and fabrication simplicity.

Findings

Capable of THz emission up to 2.5 THz

Achieves 36 dB signal-to-noise ratio

Features improved robustness and simplified fabrication

Abstract

An interdigitated photoconductive antenna (i-PCA) for terahertz (THz) emission with a novel metal-insulator-semiconductor interface is designed with the aim of developing compact and scalable THz devices. The photoconductive material is an amorphous germanium (Ge) film deposited using DC magnetron sputtering. The antenna electrodes are composed of gold-germanium (AuGe). With the integration of a silicon dioxide (SiO2) layer that acts as an electrical mask on alternate active areas, we present a simple approach to fabricate a large-area i-PCA. Along with a simplified fabrication compared to other existing designs, our approach increases the electrical robustness of the emitter and reduces the inactive gap area on the device. The i-PCA is capable of THz emission up to 2.5 THz and 36 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and is promising for applications in CMOS technologies.