A Fermi-level managed barrier (FMB) diode was used for the heterodyne detection of terahertz waves for the first time. A quasi-optical module integrating an FMB diode and a broadband trans-impedance amplifier exhibited an intermediate frequency bandwidth of 11 GHz. A very low noise-equivalent-power of 1.1 × 10⁻¹⁸ W/Hz was achieved at ∼300 GHz with a very low local oscillator power of 6 × 10⁻⁶ W.

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Low-noise heterodyne detection of terahertz waves at room temperature using zero-biased Fermi-level managed barrier diode

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