SBIR Phase I: Terahertz Detector

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop ultra-high speed detector for terahertz applications. The ever-increasing volume of the information to be Transmitted and processed demands fast communication systems that will have to fulfill a throughput of 1 Tb/s or even 10 Tb/s. This requires more than 100 times improvement of performance over today's fiber optic communication systems, and calls for the development of terahertz or femtosecond technologies. The success of this program will lead to drastic improvement of device performance in response speed, gain, responsivity and detectivity. Phase I of this program is to demonstrate the proof-of-concept. The recent surveys suggest that the communication systems will have to fulfill, a throughput of at least 1 Tb/s or even 10 Tb/s by 2010. This puts a demand for more than 100 times improvement of performance in today's fiber-optic communication systems, and calls for the development of terahertz or femtosecond technologies. The potential applications include, detector of ultra-fast laser pulse, generator and detector of ultra-fast electrical transients, broadband detectors, samplers, demultiplexers, and mixer in multi-gigahertz range, high speed optical switches, etc.