A Cold-Cathode Microwave and Terahertz Radiation Source: Experimental Realization @10’s GHz and Computational Design @THz

Due to their unique characteristics of instant responses and low-power consumption, vacuum electronic devices based on field emission cold-cathode have potentials for realizing compact and novel high frequency electromagnetic wave radiation sources. Herein, a cold-cathode radiation source operating in the frequency range from gigahertz to terahertz is developed, which is based on frequency multiplication by taking advantage of nonlinearity of field electron emission. The radiation source is realized by introducing a compact structure with two re-entrant cavity resonators. Based on such a structure, radiation sources of frequencies at 12.10 GHz and 0.1 THz were, respectively, designed and simulated numerically. Based on the simulation results, the 12.10-GHz radiation source using carbon nanotubes cold-cathode was fabricated and tested experimentally. The results showed that an electromagnetic wave output at 12.10 GHz with power of 98 μW can be achieved upon excitation by a 6.05 GHz input signal with power of 1.05 mW. Our study provides an approach for microwave and terahertz wave generation.