Résumé
The channel of nanometre field effect transistor can act as a resonant cavity for plasma waves. The frequency of these plasma waves is in the Terahertz range and can be tuned by the gate length and the gate bias. During the last few years Terahertz detection and emission related to plasma wave instabilities in nanometre size field effect transistors was demonstrated experimentally. In this work we review the recent results on sub-THz and THz detection by 50-300nm gate length III-V HEMTs and Si MOSFETs. We present experimental results on the resonant and nonresonant (overdamped) plasma wave detection and discuss possible applications of nanometre field effect transistors as new detectors of THz radiations.