A concept for a tunable antenna-coupled intersubband terahertz (TACIT) detector

Abstract Detectors based on intersubband transitions in quantum wells have great potential for use between one and several terahertz. We propose a tunable, antenna-coupled, intersubband terahertz (TACIT) detector that is both sensitive and fast, with a speed limited only by the intersubband relaxation rate (1 ns at T=10 K ,⩽10 ps at T=50 K ). The detector is sensitive over a narrow range of frequencies, and the frequency of peak absorption can be tuned by applying a bias voltage to the device.