Terahertz Bessel-Gauss beams of radial and azimuthal polarization from microstructured photoconductive antennas

We report on emission and detection of pulsed terahertz radiation of radial and azimuthal polarization by microstructured photoconductive antennas. To this end the electrode geometry of the emitter is inverse to the desired THz field pattern and a second periodic structure prevents destructive interference effects. Beam profiles of freely propagating THz waves are studied for divergent and refocused beams. They can be well described as the lowest order Bessel-Gauss modes with a divergence comparable to linearly polarized Gaussian beams. Additionally, mode sensitive detection is demonstrated for radially polarized radiation. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America