Microlens coupled photoconductive switch

The generation of picosecond electromagnetic pulses in the frequency range of 100 GHz to above 10 THz using ultrashort laser pulses is a well established technique by now. Over the past years, several different attempts have been made to increase the THz efficiency and output power, respectively. Especially, tomographic applications and spatial resolved spectroscopy require powerful THz radiation in order to accelerate the data acquisition while preserving a sufficient high signal-to-noise ratio. However, still today, phase sensitive THz measurements of extended objects generally require several minutes, hours or even days, depending on the size and the intended resolution of the object.