Narrow Results

The integrable substrate for THz modulation directly influences both the quality of films and THz absorption. Currently, the available THz substrate candidate library is still not clear. Here, we have carried out a systematic investigation of commonly used commercial substrates, including Si, quartz SiO₂, MgO, Al₂O₃, GdScO₃ and TbScO₃ in the range of 0.4–1.6THz. It is found that low resistance Si, TSO and GSO are certainly not appropriate for THz light modulation due to their relatively higher absorption and dielectric constant, while the rest show better THz transmittance, low refractive index and loss. However, the dielectric constant and refractive index of high resistance Si are generally two times larger than quartz SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and MgO. Compared with Al₂O₃ and MgO, quartz SiO₂ shows at least 50% lower dielectric constant, refractive index and absorption, making it the best candidate. Our research is believed to build the rich substrate candidate library for THz range light modulation.

Low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) applied in millimeter/microwave and terahertz frequencies (5G/6G) have attracted a lot of attention recently. In this study, MgO-based dielectric ceramics were successfully sintered at 950°C with the sintering aids: x wt.% of LiF fluoride ($x=2$, 4, 6, 8, 10) and 0.5wt.% of BBSZ (Bi₂O₃–B₂O₃–SiO₂–ZnO) glass. BBSZ glass was introduced as another sintering aid to facilitate the sintering and densification. Crystalline structure and micro-morphology were investigated and analyzed. Dielectric properties (${\epsilon }_r$, $Q\times f$, ${\tau }_f$) at millimeter/microwave and terahertz wave frequencies were also studied. The ionic characteristics of Mg–O bond ($f_i$), the lattice energy (U) and the bond energy (E) were calculated and analyzed. It is suggested that the optimal $x=4$, where ${\epsilon }_r=10.5$, $Q\times f=120,000$GHz (@12GHz) and ${\tau }_f=-26$ppm/°C at millimeter/microwave range. When the frequency was up to terahertz (1.0THz), the ${\epsilon }_r$ values were 8.8–9.35 and the tan$\delta$ were $5.6\times 10^{-3}$–$8.7\times 10^{-3}$. The experimental results indicated that the low-temperature sintered MgO-based ceramics have potential for millimeter/microwave and terahertz communication applications.

The nonlinear interaction of electromagnetic radiation in microwave, terahertz, and optical regions with non-uniformly distributed space charge in the interelectrode space of vacuum devices is investigated. The detection of electromagnetic radiation in the vacuum electronic tubes (diode and triode) with parallel plate electrodes is experimentally demonstrated. The dependence of the detected signal on the incident radiation power, direction of wave polarization, current characteristics and frequency of modulating signal has been investigated.

The equation of motion of an electron in the field of electromagnetic wave in the presence of space charge was obtained, according to which, the detection is due to nonlinearity associated with the non-uniform distribution of electrons along the electrostatic field direction.

The measured detection characteristics are in reasonable agreement with theoretical estimates.