Generation of Terahertz Radiation in Boron-Doped Diamond

For the first time, the ability of semiconducting diamond to convert near-IR laser radiation into terahertz radiation has been demonstrated. A set of photoconductive antennas based on single-crystal diamonds doped with boron (similar to 1 ppm) was assembled and tested under conditions of pumping with ultrashort (tau(opt) approximate to 150 fs) radiation pulses with a wavelength of 800 nm and a pulsed voltage (tau(E) approximate to 10 ns, E-bias approximate to 10 kV/cm). The characteristics of the boron-doped emitters were compared with recently implemented nitrogen-doped diamond antennas pumped by 400-nm-wavelength radiation pulses, since substituting nitrogen requires a much higher quantum energy for single-photon excitation of carriers. The results obtained are another step towards the use of diamond as a material for high-performance photoconductive antennas.