Real-time measurement of picosecond THz pulses by an ultra-fast YBa2Cu3O7-d detection system

The temporal evolution of picosecond THz pulses generated at ANKA, the electron storage ring of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, has been measured in real-time using an ultra-fast YBa2Cu3O7-delta detection system. YBa2Cu3O7-delta thin-film detectors with 30 nm thickness were patterned to microbridges (2 mu m long, 4.5 mu m wide) and embedded into a planar log-spiral THz antenna. The detectors were glued on a silicon lens and installed in an ultra-fast readout system with a temporal resolution of 15 ps (full width at half maximum). Detector responses as short as 17 ps were recorded showing very good agreement with the expected storage ring bunch lengths. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4756905]