Ultra-low phase-noise photonic terahertz imaging system based on two-tone square-law detection

In this paper, we demonstrate a phase-sensitive photonic terahertz imaging system, based on two-tone square-law detection with a record-low phase noise. The system comprises a high-frequency photodiode (PD) for THz generation and a square-law detector (SLD) for THz detection. Two terahertz of approximately 300 GHz tones, separated by an intermediate frequency (IF) (7 GHz-15 GHz), are generated in the PD by optical heterodyning and radiated into free-space. After transmission through a device-under-test, the two-tones are self-mixed inside the SLD. The mixing results in an IF-signal, which still contains the phase information of the terahertz tones. To achieve ultra-low phase-noise, we developed a new mixing scheme using a reference PD and a low-frequency electrical local oscillator (LO) to get rid of additional phase-noise terms. In combination with a second reference PD, the output signal of the SLD can be down-converted to the kHz region to realize lock-in detection with ultra-low phase noise. The evaluation of the phase-noise shows the to-date lowest reported value of phase deviation in a frequency domain photonic terahertz imaging and spectroscopy system of 0.034°. Consequently, we also attain a low minimum detectable path difference of 2 µm for a terahertz difference frequency of 15 GHz. This is in the same range as in coherent single-tone THz systems. At the same time, it lacks their complexity and restrictions caused by the necessary optical LOs, photoconductive antennas, temperature control and delay lines.