SUBMILLIMETER HARMONIC-GENERATION IN SEMICONDUCTOR WAVE-GUIDES

The phenomenon of nonlinear third harmonic generation of submillimeter waves is investigated in non‐parabolic and parabolic semiconductors (e.g. n‐InSb and Ge) inside a rectangular waveguide. The nonlinearity in the current density arises through the nonparabolicity of energy bands and the energy dependence of collision frequency of electrons. The conversion efficiency in the case of n‐InSb is relatively large as the electron mobility is high. The efficiency in both, Ge and InSb samples increases with increasing size of the specimen. For large thicknesses (a ⪆ 0.5 cm) it saturates. In a typical case (power ≈ 2 kW, a = 0.5 cm) the conversion efficiency in n‐InSb is ≈ 10−4. Copyright © 1979 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA