Terahertz imaging cameras

Terasense Group, Inc. (Terasense)

The detectors are fabricated with a GaAs high-mobility heterostructure in the standard semiconductor cycle using conventional optical lithography. The imaging sensor is manufactured on a single wafer. That process ensures high homogeneity and reproducibility of the plasmonic detector parameters (pixel-to-pixel deviation responsivity is within a 20- percent range). Each detector unit has a room-temperature responsivity up to 50 kV/W with read-out circuitry and noise-equivalent power of 1 nW/\sqrt{\rm{Hz}} in the frequency range 10 GHz — 1 THz. The detection mechanism is based on excitation of plasma oscillations in a two-dimensional electron system with subsequent rectification. The rectification takes place on special defects made in the electron system.