Fully optoelectronic coherent THz spectroscopy

Abstract

Coherent terahertz spectroscopy of molecular transients has so far relied on electronic sources whose bandwidth is limited to a fraction of their center frequency. Photoconductive devices offer a complementary approach, combining intrinsically broadband operation with coherent optoelectronic generation and detection. We report free-induction-decay spectroscopy of carbonyl sulfide at 0.29 THz in which, to our knowledge for the first time, both the pulsed emitter and the coherent heterodyne receiver are LT-GaAs photoconductors simultaneously pumped by a single free-running dual-frequency Ti:Sa laser. The receiver operates within 15 dB of the thermal noise limit, and the shared optical reference maintains phase coherence over more than 1000 averaged acquisitions. The measured transients agree with a time-domain Maxwell-Bloch model based on HITRAN parameters. These results demonstrate the feasibility of fully optoelectronic coherent THz spectroscopy and establish photoconductive optoelectronic mixing as a practical route toward frequency-agile, high-resolution coherent THz spectrometers over broad spectral ranges.