The excitation and emission of terahertz surface plasmon polaritons on metal wire waveguides

The development of effective techniques for guiding pulsed terahertz radiation is essential for the continued development of terahertz spectroscopy and imaging applications based on the technique of time-domain spectroscopy. Terahertz surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be excited and guided on cylindrical metal wires with low loss and dispersion. This propagating surface wave, known as a Sommerfeld wave, possesses radial polarization, which is not well matched with conventional sources of pulsed terahertz radiation. A photoconductive terahertz antenna with radial symmetry produces radiation that more efficiently couples to the wire waveguide. At the end of the wire, terahertz SPPs emit radiation into free-space that exhibits frequency-dependent diffraction. To cite this article: J.A. Deibel et al., C. R. Physique 9 (2008).