  Two types of room temperature detectors of terahertz laser radiation have
been developed which allow in an all-electric manner to determine the plane of
polarization of linearly polarized radiation and the ellipticity of
elliptically polarized radiation, respectively. The operation of the detectors
is based on photogalvanic effects in semiconductor quantum well structures of
low symmetry. The photogalvanic effects have sub-nanosecond time constants at
room temperature making a high time resolution of the polarization detectors
possible.
