Plasma oscillations in nanotransistors for room temperature detection and emission of terahertz radiation

In this work we present experimental results on room temperature terahertz (THz) detection/emission from nanotransistors as well as double grating gates structures. It shows that the emission spectra from GaN/AlGaN HEMT transistor can be successfully interpreted in the frame of the Dyakonov-Shur model which predicts that by heating/accelerating the electrons up to velocities comparable with plasma wave velocity can lead to instability and generation of plasma waves in the transistor channel. Studies of the current dependence of THz detection by InGaAs based HEMT is also presented. It is shown that in realistic transistor structures the room temperature resonant THz detection can be observed only upon applying a current high enough to produce fast/hot electrons. (c) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.