Graphene two terminal detector as THz mixer

Abstract The growing requirements for mobile communication networks (data transfer rates over 100 Gbps) makes it necessary to use carrier signal with a frequency of at least 100 GHz. This requires the development of cheap and broadband sub-terahertz (sub-THz) detectors. Here we report on our recent efforts toward the development of a heterodyne sub-THz detector based on a single layer graphene two-terminal device integrated with a bowtie antenna on a sapphire substrate. Our detector operates at frequency of 140 GHz, which corresponds to the maximum transmission of THz radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere. The heterodyne detection is achieved by quasi-optical coupling of signals from two sub-THz radiation sources to the same detector. The measured frequency bandwidth is 5.8 GHz.