Heterodyne mixing of millimetre electromagnetic waves and sub-THz sound in a semiconductor device.

ABSTRACT: We demonstrate heterodyne mixing of a 94 GHz millimetre wave photonic signal, supplied by a Gunn diode oscillator, with coherent acoustic waves of frequency ~100 GHz, generated by pulsed laser excitation of a semiconductor surface. The mixing takes place in a millimetre wave Schottky diode, and the intermediate frequency electrical signal is in the 1-12 GHz range. The mixing process preserves all the spectral content in the acoustic signal that falls within the intermediate frequency bandwidth. Therefore this technique may find application in high-frequency acoustic spectroscopy measurements, exploiting the nanometre wavelength of sub-THz sound. The result also points the way to exploiting acoustoelectric effects in photonic devices working at sub-THz and THz frequencies, which could provi

SUBMITTER: Heywood SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4967867 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature