Fibre-coupled terahertz transceiver head

A very efficient and compact terahertz, time-domain transceiver is presented, that is well suited for tomography applications and other zero degree reflection measurements. The transceiver head consists of only one fibre, coupled antenna, that emits and receives the terahertz signal. An electrical filter circuit and a transimpedance amplifier are integrated into the compact metal housing of the transceiver head. The signal-to-noise ratio is 40 dB at 300 GHz, whereas the required optical pump and probe power is below 1 mW. To demonstrate its operation the transceiver was used to measure the reflection spectrum of a dielectric mirror at normal incidence.