Polarization detection of terahertz electromagnetic radiation by three-contact photoconductive receiver

We fabricate a three-contact photoconductive antenna for the polarization sensitive detection of terahertz electromagnetic radiation. With the three-contact photoconductive antenna we can measure the polarization state of pulsed THz radiation in a single time-delay scan. The accuracy of the measurement is comparable to the one achieved with the conventional method using a set of wire-grid polarizers. The three-contact photoconductive receiver may be useful for polarization sensitive spectroscopy such as the vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy and ellipsometry in the THz frequency region.