Ultrafast tunable antenna-coupled quantum-well THz detectors operating above 100K

This extended abstract reports on the fabrication and testing of a new type of detector in which THz radiation excites a collective oscillation of electrons confined in a quantum well and set between two gates in a microscopic four terminal transistor. The energy dissipates into other modes of the electron gas, warming it and changing the source-drain resistance. The detector shows amplifier-limited rise times near 1 ns and has detected THz laser radiation at temperatures up to 120K. The frequency of the collective oscillation tunes with small gate voltages. The first-generation tunable antenna-coupled intersubband Terahertz (TACIT) detectors tune between 1.5 and 2 THz with voltages <2V.