Structurally embedded photoconductive silicon bowtie antenna

We report the generation of 1.5-3.0-GHz electromagnetic radiation by a photoconductive bowtie antenna in a continuous-wave (CW) mode. The semiconductor bowtie element was made of silicon, and activated by a semiconductor laser beam delivered through a novel light waveguide system. We observed for the first time of our knowledge the VSWR resonance and a near copper-performance (<5 dB) with the optical power density as low as 1.0 W/cm/sup 2/. Further reduction of the optical power requirement is possible and will be tentatively presented with the aim of achieving the goal of less than 0.1 W/cm/sup 2/.