We present results of investigations of Plasma Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy (PAMBE) - grown GaN/AIGaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) structures for fabrication of detectors and emitters operating in THz spectral range. These devices are standard HEMT structures but equipped with additional antennas that ensure THz radiation coupling. THz detectors and emitters were processed using different HEMT designs. The results of emission experiments at room temperature demonstrate emission in the spectral range from 0.5 to 12 THz with a total integrated power of the single transistor of the order of 100 nW. The results of room temperature THz detection (photoresponse experiments) in the ranges 110-170 and 220-330 GHz are presented and discussed. THz experiments, transistor electrical tests and data analysis presented in this work, clearly show that PAMBE grown GaN/AIGaN transistors can used as promising elements of future THz imaging systems.

An overview of main results concerning THz detection related to plasma nonlinearities in nanometer field effect transistors is presented. In particular nonlinearity and dynamic range of these detectors are discussed. As a conclusion, we will show one of the first real world application of the FET THz detectors: a demonstrator of the imager developed for fast postal security.

We have found the possibility to probe the magnetic field-driven topological phase transition in HgTe-based transistors by measuring their Terahertz photoconductivity response. At the critical magnetic field to which zero-mode Landau levels cross, we have observed a pronounced photoconductivity peak independent on incident frequency and carrier concentration. Our results pave the way towards terahertz topological field effect transistors.

An overview of recent results concerning THz detection related to plasma nonlinearities in nanometer field effect transistors is presented. In particular, the research on the dynamic range of these detectors is described and two different technologies GaAs and GaN are compared. As a conclusion, we will show first real world applications of the plasma field effect transistors based THz detectors: demonstrators of the imagers (cameras and linear scanners) developed for fast postal security and for nondestructive industrial quality control.

Phenomena of the radiation coupling to the field effect transistors based terahertz (THz) detectors are studied. We show that in the case of planar metal antennas a significant portion of incoming radiation, instead of being coupled to the transistors, is coupled to an antenna substrate leading to responsivity losses and/or cross-talk effects in the field effect based THz detector arrays. Experimental and theoretical investigations of the responsivity versus substrate thickness are performed. They clearly show how to minimize the losses by the detector/ array substrate thinning. In conclusion simple quantitative rules of losses minimization by choosing a proper substrate thickness of field effect transistor THz detectors are presented for common materials (Si, GaAs, InP, GaN) used in semiconductor technologies.

Diffractive optical elements such as hyperbolic lens and quasi-spherical lens converting a divergent terahertz beam into the focal line segment perpendicular to the optical axis was designed. Due to the fact that the length of the line segment was longer than the aperture of the designed elements the non-paraxial approach was used. The structures were designed for the narrowband application as kinoform elements. The theoretical approach, computer simulations and experimental results are presented. In the imaging system, the intensity of the radiation in the focal plane was measured by THz point-like detector based on InP heterojunction bipolar transistor.

We evaluate the optical performance of the InP heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs) designed for 100 Gbit/s circuit applications as a room temperature detector operating above 1 THz. They can operate far above the frequencies at which they have gain and can still rectify THz current and voltage.