We demonstrate a simplified dual-comb LIDAR setup for precision absolute ranging that can achieve a ranging precision of 2 μm in 140 μs acquisition time. With averaging, the precision drops below 1 μm at 0.8 ms and below 200 nm at 20 ms. The system can measure the distance to multiple targets with negligible dead zones and a ranging ambiguity of 1 meter. The system is much simpler than a previous coherent dual-comb LIDAR because the two combs are replaced by free-running, saturable-absorber-based femtosecond Er fiber lasers, rather than tightly phase-locked combs, with the entire time base provided by a single 10-digit frequency counter. Despite the simpler design, the system provides a factor of three improved performance over the previous coherent dual comb LIDAR system.

The photoconductive antennas based on multi-energy arsenic-ion-implanted GaAs and semi-insulating GaAs are demonstrated to have a useful bandwidth beyond 20 THz for a gating laser pulse width of 15 fs. The bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio are compared with those of reference photoconductive antennas based on low-temperature grown GaAs.

Photoconductive (PC) antennas fabricated on InP bombarded with 180 keV protons of different dosages (InP:H+) all exhibit a useful bandwidth of about 30 THz, comparable to that of the LT-GaAs PC antenna. The peak signal current of the best InP: H+ device (dosage of 10;15 ions/cm;2) is slightly higher than that of the LT-GaAs one, while the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the former is about half of that of the latter due to lower resistivity. This suggests that InP: H+ can be a good substrate for THz PC antennas with proper annealing and/or implantation recipe.

We demonstrate transmission of audio and burst signals through a prototype THz analog communication link employing laser-gated low-temperature-grown GaAs dipole antenna as THz emitter and receiver. The transmission distance is about 100 cm. By using a direct voltage modulation format, we successfully demodulated a burst signal with a rising time of 41 micros. The corresponding modulating bandwidth achieved was 23 kHz in this first experiment. Noise analysis reveals a 10% power fluctuation in the received signal with on-off extinction ratio of greater than 1000. The transmission of a six-channel analog and burst audio signal with least distortion is also demonstrated. We further demonstrate the fidelity of the transmission of a melody through the THz link with and without any amplification.

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