Dependence of Terahertz Electric Fields on Electric Bias and Modulation Frequency in Pulsed Terahertz Emissions from Electrically-Modulated Photoconductive Antenna Detected with Free-Space Electro-Optic Sampling

We investigated the dependence of terahertz (THz) electric fields on electric bias and modulation frequency in the pulsed THz emissions from electrically modulated photoconductive antennas detected with free-space electro-optic sampling. The linear dependence of the THz electric field on the electric bias achieves distortion-free modulation of the THz pulse even for deep modulation. We confirmed that the signal-to-noise ratio in free-space electro-optic sampling of the THz pulse is strongly affected by the 1/f noise characteristics of the mode-locked laser, and is improved effectively by increasing the modulation frequency. The resulting signal-to-noise ratio was 4,900 in THz radiation power at 0.1 THz using an audio-frequency lock-in amplifier with a time constant of 1 ms and modulation frequency of 100 kHz. The proposed method will be a powerful tool for real-time or highly sensitive THz measurements.