Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) represent an ideal building block for implementing rectifying diodes or plasma­ wave detectors that could operate well into the THz, thanks to the typical attofarad-order capacitance. Despite the strong effort in developing these nanostructures for a new generation of complementary metal-oxide semi­ conductors (CMOS), memory and photonic devices, their potential as radiation sensors into the Terahertz is just starting to be explored. We report on the development of NW-based field effect transistors operating as high sensitivity THz detectors in the 0.3 - 2.8 THz range. By feeding the radiation field of either an electronic THz source or a quantum cascade laser (QCL) at the gate-source electrodes by means of a wide band dipole antenna, we measured a photovoltage signal corresponding to responsivity values up to 100 V IW, with impressive noise equivalent power levels < 6 x 10-11W/Hz at room temperature and a > 300kHz modulation bandwidth. The potential scalability to even higher frequencies and the technological feasibility of realizing multi-pixel arrays coupled with QCL sources make the proposed technology highly competitive for a future generation of THz detection systems.

We present the realization of high electron mobility transistors on GaN-heterostructures usable for mixing and rectification in the THz range. Device fabrication is fully compatible with industrial processes employed for millimetre wave integrated circuits. On-chip, integrated, polarization-sensitive, planar antennas were designed to allow selective coupling of THz radiation to the three terminals of field effect transistors in order to explore different mixing schemes for frequencies well above the cutoff frequency for amplification. The polarization dependence of the spectral response in the 0.18-0.40 THz range clearly demonstrated the possible use as integrated heterodyne mixers

Double-grating-gate field-effect transistors have a great potential as terahertz detectors. The double grating gate serves not only for carrier density tuning but also as an efficient THz radiation coupler. Low and high magnetic field detection results are used to determine the electron mobility and electron concentration, respectively, in the different parts of the channel.

The concept of THz detection based on excitation of plasma waves in two-dimensional electron gas in Si FETs is one of the most attractive ones, as it makes possible the development of the large-scale integrated devices based on a conventional microelectronic technology including on-chip antennas and readout devices integration. In this work we report on investigations of Terahertz detectors based on low-cost silicon technology field effect transistors. We show that detectors, consisting of a coupling antenna and a n-MOS field effect transistor as rectifying element, are efficient for THz detection and imaging. We demonstrate that in the atmospheric window around 300 GHz, these detectors can achieve a record noise equivalent power below 10 pW/Hz0.5 and a responsivity above 90 kV/W once integrated with on-chip amplifier. We show also that they can be used in a very wide frequency range: from ∼0.2 THz up to 1.1 THz. THz detection by Si FETs pave the way towards high sensitivity silicon technology based focal plane arrays for THz imaging

Abstract: We report on ultrahigh sensitive, broadband terahertz (THz) detectors based on asymmetric double-grating-gate (ADGG) high electron mobility transistors, demonstrating a record responsivity of 2.2 kV/W at 1 THz with a superior low noise equivalent power of 15 pW/v Hz using InGaAs/InAlAs/InP material systems. When THz radiation is absorbed strong THz photocurrent is first generated by the nonlinearity of the plasmon modes resonantly excited in undepleted portions of the 2D electron channel under the high-biased sub-grating of the A-DGG, then the THz photovoltaic response is read out at high-impedance parts of 2D channel under the other sub-grating biased at the level close to the threshold. Extraordinary enhancement by more than two orders of magnitude of the responsivity is verified with respect to that for a symmetric DGG structure.

We report on ultrahigh sensitive, broadband terahertz (THz) detectors based on asymmetric double-grating-gate (ADGG) high electron mobility transistors, demonstrating a record responsivity of 2.2 kV/W at 1 THz with a superior low noise equivalent power of 15 pW/v Hz using InGaAs/InAlAs/InP material systems. When THz radiation is absorbed strong THz photocurrent is first generated by the nonlinearity of the plasmon modes resonantly excited in undepleted portions of the 2D electron channel under the high-biased sub-grating of the A-DGG, then the THz photovoltaic response is read out at high-impedance parts of 2D channel under the other sub-grating biased at the level close to the threshold. Extraordinary enhancement by more than two orders of magnitude of the responsivity is verified with respect to that for a symmetric DGG structure

THz Plasma Nonlinearities in Field Effect Transistors