DEVELOPMENT OF A THZ FREQUENCY DETECTOR

Due to advances in source and detector technology the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum (300GHz – 3000GHz) has become accessible in the last decade to laboratories around the world. In particular the ICT Centre has developed a THz imaging system [1, 2] which will allow research into applications, imaging techniques and technologies at these frequencies [3, 4, 5, 6]. Although the early system is comprised from commercially available components, a program is underway to incorporate a superconducting detector into the system. This detector will be fed via a substrate lens, and integrated planar antenna and superconducting detector element. For the initial design a ring slot antenna [7] was selected for its simplicity, ability to be packed closely together in an array configuration, capability for dual polarization detection, and directive radiation pattern. The design was optimised to operate at 650 GHz to correspond to the THz imaging demonstrator’s frequency of operation. A range of techniques were used to analyse the structures including BEM [8, 9], FDTD [10], and hybrid PO and GO using distributed computing methods [11, 12]. (a) (b