All Organic Terahertz Electromagnetic Wave Emission and Detection Using Highly Purified N-Benzyl-2-methyl-4-nitroaniline Crystals

We studied terahertz (THz) electromagnetic wave emission and detection using highly purified N-benzyl-2-methyl-4-nitroaniline (BNA) crystals. In THz emission experiments, we compared the efficiencies of THz emission via optical rectification for BNA, ZnTe, and GaP crystals, and confirmed that the BNA crystal is the most efficient THz emitter among these three crystals within the frequency range limits for observation. In the THz detection experiment, we also compared the modulation efficiencies of the BNA and ZnTe crystals, and found that the ZnTe crystal has a higher efficiency than the BNA crystal. However, the BNA crystal has a higher efficiency than the ZnTe crystal in high-frequency regions. Since the BNA crystal is suitable for detecting a high-frequency region even when using thick crystals, it is expected that the BNA crystal as a THz detector will be easy to prepare and handle.