Optical modulation of continuous terahertz waves towards cost-effective reconfigurable quasi-optical terahertz components

We report optical modulation of continuous terahertz (THz) wave in the frequency range of 570-600 GHz using photo-induced reconfigurable patterns on a silicon wafer. The patterns were implemented using programmable illumination from a commercially-available digital light processing (DLP) projector. A modulation depth of 20 dB at 585 GHz has been demonstrated. Modulation speed measurement shows a 3-dB bandwidth of similar to 1.3 kHz which is primarily limited by the DLP system. A photo-induced polarizer with tunable polarization angle has been demonstrated, showing a 3-dB extinction ratio. Reconfigurable aperture-arrays (4 x 4 pixels) have been attempted for room-temperature coded-aperture imaging using a single Schottky diode detector at 585 GHz. We envision that this technique will provide a simple but powerful means to realize a variety of cost-effective reconfigurable quasi-optical THz circuits and components. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America