Composite right/left-handed transmission line with array of thermocouples for generating terahertz radiation

Abstract

We present a new concept of the thermoelectric structure that generates microwave and terahertz signals when illuminated by femtosecond optical pulses. The structure consists of a series array of capacitively coupled thermocouples. The array acts as a hybrid type microwave transmission line with anomalous dispersion and phase velocity higher than the velocity of light. This allows for adding up the responces from all the thermocouples in phase. The array is easily integrable with microstrip transmission lines. Dispersion curves obtained from both the lumped network scheme and numerical simulations are presented. The connection of the thermocouples is a composite right/left-handed transmission line, which can receive terahertz radiation from the transmission line ports. The radiation of the photon to the surface of the thermocouple structure causes a voltage difference with the bandwidth of terahertz. We examined a lossy composite right/left-handed transmission line to extract the circuit elements. The calculated properties of the design are extracted by employing commercial software package CST STUDIO SUITE.