Hybrid transmission line with integrated thermocouple chain for generating terahertz radiation

We present a new concept of the thermoelectric structure that generates microwave and terahertz signals when illuminated by femtosecond optical pulses. The structure consists of a series array of capacitively coupled thermocouples. The array acts as a hybrid type microwave transmission line with anomalous dispersion and phase velocity higher than the velocity of light. This allows for adding up the responces from all the thermocouples in phase. The array is easily integrable with microstrip transmission lines. Dispersion curves obtained from both the lumped network scheme and numerical simulations are presented.