Emission of terahertz radiation from dual grating gate plasmon-resonant emitters fabricated with InGaP/InGaAs/GaAs material systems

This paper reviews recent advances in our original 2D-plasmon-resonant terahertz emitters. The structure is based on a high-electron-mobility transistor and featured with doubly interdigitated grating gates. The dual grating gates can alternately modulate the 2D electron densities to periodically distribute the plasmonic cavities along the channel, acting as an antenna. The device can emit broadband terahertz radiation even at room temperature from self-oscillating 2D plasmons under the DC-biased conditions. When the device is subjected to laser illumination, photo-generated carriers stimulate the plasma oscillation, resulting in enhancement of the emission. The first sample was fabricated with standard GaAs-based heterostructure material systems, achieving room temperature terahertz emission. The second sample was fabricated in a double-decked HEMT structure in which the grating gate metal layer was replaced with the semiconducting upper-deck 2D electron layer, resulting in enhancement of emission by one order of magnitude.