Design and performance of a THz emission and detection setup based on a semi-insulating GaAs emitter

We have built a relatively simple, highly efficient, THz emission and detection system centered around a 15 fs Ti:sapphire laser. In the system, 200 mW of laser power is focused to a 120 mum diam spot between two silverpaint electrodes on the surface of a semi-insulating GaAs crystal, kept at a temperature near 300 K, biased with a 50 kHz, +/-400 V square wave. Using rapid delay scanning and lock-in detection at 50 kHz, we obtain probe laser quantum-noise limited signals using a standard electro-optic detection scheme with a 1-mm-thick (110) oriented ZnTe crystal or a (110) oriented 0.1-mm-thick GaP crystal. The maximum THz-induced differential signal that we observe is DeltaI/I=7x10(-3), corresponding to a THz peak amplitude of 95 V/cm. The THz average power was measured to be about 40 muW, to our knowledge, the highest power reported so far generated with Ti:sapphire oscillators as a pump source. The system uses off-the-shelf electronics and requires no microfabrication techniques. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.