Tunable narrowband THz pulse generation in scalable large area photoconductive antennas

The generation and characterization of narrowband THz pulses by means of chirped pulse difference frequency generation in Auston-switch type photoconductive antennas is reported. Using optical pulses with energies in the range from 1 nJ to 1µJ, we generate THz pulses with up to 50 pJ in energy and electric field strengths on the order of 1 kV/cm. Two emitter concepts are investigated and circumvention of the fast saturation for small area excitation by scaling of the THz emitter is demonstrated.