A figure of merit to assess the performance of photoconductive antennas at terahertz band

Photoconductive antennas are one of the most efficient ways to radiate and receive EM waves around the 1 THz frequency band. The physical processes involved in photoconductive terahertz signal generation are complex enough to prevent having simple and accurate models to assess the performance of different electrode geometries. In this paper a figure of merit definition based on the physical processes involved in the electro-optical conversion process is proposed.