Radiative Characteristics of On-Chip Terahertz Undulatory Structures

Work on compact, variable, efficient, and high brightness radiation sources is extended by calculating the radiated power and angular distributions for characteristic configurations and drive sources. On the assumption that the transport physics with Maxwell's Equations are valid but modified by the material properties, a number of analogs are suggested between free and bound electron sources of radiation. Characteristics of representative 1-to-n port examples are discussed in terms of a few basic shape parameters and the wavelength. Conditions for coherence and interference are discussed and demonstrated for the latter. Figures-of-merit are defined in terms of brightness, efficiencies or effective impedances such as the radiation coupling impedance Z{sub rc}. Both time and frequency domain techniques are used and checked against other calculations and measurements where available. Finally, we discuss some further possibilities together with various impediments to realizing these kinds of devices such as the Terahertz (THz) modulation problem as well as nonlinear methods for their optimization. To our knowledge, there have been no implementations of such possibilities.