Radiation field screening in photoconductive antennae studied via pulsed terahertz emission spectroscopy

We report terahertz emission experiments on low-temperature-grown GaAs photoconductive antennae. Two field-screening effects determine the device response: space-charge screening on a long time scale and radiation field screening of the local electric field. This latter effect is the principal cause for saturation of terahertz emission observed when the emitters are driven hard with high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses. We present an equivalent-circuit model consisting of three elements: a resistor with time-dependent conductance (photoswitch), a time-dependent voltage source (space-charge screening), and the antenna impedance (terahertz emission and radiation field screening). The simulations with this voltage divider reproduce the measured data well.