ABSTRACT

Photodiode technology for generating terahertz radiation is described in this chapter. Semiconductor materials for the photodiode considered here are InP and alloy materials lattice-matched to InP, which are well established in fabricating a variety of devices used in long-wavelength fiber optic communication systems. After a brief introduction, basic photodiode structures and their features in frequency response are reviewed. The behavior of electron transport, which is far from the steady state in a photodiode, is also discussed. Then, reported performance of diode-based photomixers is presented.