THz emission from semiconductor surfaces

We provide a review of experimental and theoretical work on electromagnetic terahertz pulse emission from semiconductor surfaces excited by femtosecond laser radiation. The main terahertz emission mechanisms are analysed. The terahertz emission from InAs and Ge is explained by the photo-Dember effect and electric field induced optical rectification. Electronic band structure and carrier scattering mechanisms are investigated by means of terahertz emission and absorption spectroscopy in InAs, InSb and Ge. To cite this article: V.L. Malevich et al., C. R. Physique 9 (2008).     

不同中心波长飞秒脉冲激发InAs表面辐射太赫兹波的机理研究

研究了p型(100)InAs在不同中心波长飞秒激发光(750—850nm)作用下的太赫兹(THz)波辐射特性.这种太赫兹辐射的光谱性质与光学Dember效应密切相关,飞秒脉冲激发下产生的载流子在InAs表面的Dember场内做加速运动,从而辐射出THz电磁波.实验结果表明：不同中心波长的激发光作用下,InAs表面产生的Dember电场、光生载流子浓度、谷间散射效应以及处于不同状态的载流子数目都发生了变化,因而激发出太赫兹波的功率、振幅、频谱分布和有效谱宽是不同的.这项研究将有利于THz时域光谱技术以及实验     

不同中心波长飞秒脉冲激发InAs表面辐射太赫兹波的机理研究

研究了p型(100)InAs在不同中心波长飞秒激发光(750—850nm)作用下的太赫兹(THz)波辐射特性.这种太赫兹辐射的光谱性质与光学Dember效应密切相关，飞秒脉冲激发下产生的载流子在InAs表面的Dember场内做加速运动，从而辐射出THz电磁波.实验结果表明：不同中心波长的激发光作用下，InAs表面产生的Dember电场、光生载流子浓度、谷间散射效应以及处于不同状态的载流子数目都发生了变化，因而激发出太赫兹波的功率、振幅、频谱分布和有效谱宽是不同的.这项研究将有利于THz时域光谱技术以及实验     

Temperature dependence of terahertz radiation from n-type InSb and n-type InAs surfaces

The azimuthal angle dependence and the temperature dependence of terahertz (THz) radiation generated from n-type (111) InSb and n-type (111) InAs surfaces irradiated with ∼80 fs near-infrared laser pulses are investigated. The azimuthal angle dependence shows that the contribution of the difference-frequency mixing (DFM) is not dominant for both materials at the excitation density of ∼1 GW/cm². At an appropriate azimuthal angle, the radiation due to DFM is excluded from the total THz radiation and the temperature dependence of THz radiation due to the surge current is observed. The increase of THz radiation with decrease of the temperature is found to be much more pronounced for InSb than for InAs. The different temperature dependence can be attributed to the different radiation mechanisms dominant for both materials. Especially, the temperature dependence of the THz radiation from InSb is well explained by the photo-Dember effect. Received: 9 May 2000 / Revised version: 17 August 2000 / Published online: 5 October 2000     

Terahertz electromagnetic radiation from quantum wells

The observation of terahertz electromagnetic dipole radiation from quantum well structures has finally proven the existence of charge oscillations in semiconductors associated with wave packet dynamics. This article closely examines the physics behind the emission of terahertz electromagnetic radiation from excitonic charge oscillations in such quantum well structures, points out similarities and differences between the various generation schemes, and discusses the various relaxation mechanisms involved. Finally, we show how both amplitude and phase of charge oscillations and the corresponding terahertz emission can be manipulated using phase-locked optical pulses.     

Intense terahertz emission from undoped GaAs/n-type GaAs and?InAs/AlSb structures grown on Si substrates in the transmission-geometry excitation

Intense terahertz radiation was generated from femtosecond laser-irradiated InAs and GaAs layers on Si substrates. Results show that InAs/Si and GaAs/Si films can be excited in reflection and transmission geometries. The InAs/Si film exhibited weaker emission for both excitation cases but it will be more feasible as a spectroscopic THz source due to the absence of complex spectral features in its emission spectrum. The GaAs/Si emission is characterized by Fabry?CPerot oscillations but it is 90% of that of p-InAs bulk crystal emission intensity in the reflection geometry. Excitation fluence measurements showed that the InAs/Si film saturates easily due to the laser??s shallow penetration depth in InAs.     

Generation of high-power terahertz pulses in a prism

A compact, high-power emitter of half-cycle terahertz (THz) radiation is demonstrated. The device consists of an epitaxial InAs emitter upon a GaAs prism and produces THz pulses that are 20 times more powerful than those from conventional planar InAs emitters. This improvement is a direct result of reorienting the transient THz dipole such that its axis is not perpendicular to the emitting surface.     

On the choice of nonlinear optical and semiconductor converters of femtosecond laser pulses into terahertz range

We carried out an experimental study of the use of nonlinear crystals ZnTe, GaP, GaSe, DAST, and LiNbO₃ and semiconductors GaAs and InAs for the rectification of femtosecond optical pulses. This conversion produces broadband terahertz pulses consisting of a single period of the field oscillation. Here, we discuss features of different types of the terahertz converters, their efficiency, and spectral range.     

Modeling of Terahertz Radiation from InSb and InAs

In this paper the THz radiation dynamics of InSb and InAs, two typical narrow band semiconductors, was investigated using the ensemble Monte Carlo method. Our simulations indicated that the single mechanism of current surge only can result in small difference of THz emission efficiency for InSb and InAs. The great advantage of InAs over InSb in THz emission efficiency that was found in a published work is possibly due to the mechanism of optical rectification. In addition, under low excitation level, we found the emission efficiency of InSb is advantage over that of InAs, but under high excitation level, the result is reversed. On the other hand, through the Fourier transforms of temporal THz waveforms we found that the main frequency of THz pulses from InAs is always higher than that of InSb.     

不同抽运光强激发窄带隙半导体产生太赫兹辐射的研究

研究了窄带隙材料InAs和三种不同掺杂浓度的InN在不同抽运光强激发下产生太赫兹(THz)波的辐射特性.实验结果表明:在相同的抽运光强下,InN和InAs辐射的THz信号强度在同一量级,InAs较InN辐射效率要高一些.随着抽运光强的增大,这几种材料的发射光谱变得更宽,当抽运光增大到一定强度时,它们的发射光谱半极大值全宽(HMFW)趋于恒定.InN比InAs更容易在较低功率的抽运光作用下获得宽带太赫兹光谱.研究也表明,不同掺杂浓度对辐射THz波的强度及辐射效率有很大影响.这项研究对于探索半导体表面辐射太赫 关键词： InN InAs 太赫兹 抽运光强     

Terahertz generation from electron- and neutron-irradiated semiconductor crystal surfaces

Terahertz generation from the InP, InSb, GaAs and GaSe crystal surfaces excitated by femtosecond laser pulses has been studied. The terahertz spectra emitted from the native crystals and the crystals previously irradiated by high-energy neutrons or electrons have been recorded. Also, a simulation of the terahertz emission process has been performed. A weak terahertz signal generated from the GaSe native surface has been registered. In the case of electron-irradiated GaSe, the signal is increased several fold because of increased laser radiation absorption.     

Intraband dynamics and terahertz emission in biased semiconductor superlattices coupled to double far-infrared pulses

This paper studies both the intraband polarization and terahertz emission of a semiconductor superlattice in combined dc and ac electric fields by using the superposition of two identical time delayed and phase shifted optical pulses. By adjusting the delay between these two optical pulses, our results show that the intraband polarization is sensitive to the time delay. The peak values appear again for the terahertz emission intensity due to the superposition of two optical pulses. The emission lines of terahertz blueshift and redshift in different ac electric fields and dynamic localization appears. The emission lines of THz only appear to blueshift when the biased superlattice is driven by a single optical pulse. Due to excitonic dynamic localization, the terahertz emission intensity decays with time in different dc and ac electric fields. These are features of this superlattice which distinguish it from a superlattice generated by a single optical pulse to drive it.     

Phase relations between focused bichromatic laser pulses in terahertz wave generation from gas plasma

Terahertz emission from air excited by the tightly focused fundamental and second harmonic pulses of femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser has been analyzed. It has been found that the curved phase fronts of the pump waves cancel each other resulting in the flat phase front of the nonlinear polarization at terahertz frequency. Also, in addition to the phase terms obtained using plane-wave approximation, we have found the yet unreported phase term, which in most cases can be as large as π/2.     

Absorption and emission of terahertz radiation in doped GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

Spontaneous emission of terahertz radiation from structures with GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells in a longitudinal magnetic field has been studied. It is shown that some bands in the emission spectrum can be related to radiative electron transitions between resonant and localized impurity states, as well as to the transitions with participation of subband states. The temperature dependence of the equilibrium intraband absorption of terahertz radiation and its modulation in a longitudinal electric field in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells has been investigated.     

Directionality of terahertz emission from photoinduced gas plasmas

Forward and backward terahertz emission by ionizing two-color laser pulses in gas is investigated by means of a simple semianalytical model based on Jefimenko's equations and rigorous Maxwell simulations in one and two dimensions. We find the emission in the backward direction has a much smaller spectral bandwidth than in the forward direction and explain this by interference effects. Forward terahertz radiation is generated predominantly at the ionization front and is thus almost not affected by the opacity of the plasma, in excellent agreement with results obtained from a unidirectional pulse propagation model.     

2～4μm波长的InAsPSb异质结激光管材料的液相外延

采用液相外延方法,生长出外延层与衬底之间的失配度△α/α≤1.6×10-3界面平直、组分恒定的InAsPSb/InAs外延晶体.单异质结外延层,得到了3.09μm波长的激光输出,双异质结外延片也得到了较好的伏-安特性曲线.     

Electrooptical sampling of ultra-short THz pulses by fs-laser pulses at 1060 nm

Electrooptical sampling of ultra-broadband terahertz (THz) radiation with the help of ultra-short 1060-nm pulses is reported for the first time. The THz pulses are generated by exciting a surface emitter (InAs) with a parabolic fiber laser amplifier delivering 100-fs pulses at a repetition rate of 75 MHz and an average power of 10 W. ZnTe and GaP crystals are used for detection and their velocity mismatch is compared at 800 nm and 1060 nm. PACS 42.55.Wd; 42.70.Nq; 42.72.Ai     

Effect of thermal annealing in the microstructural and the optical properties of uncapped InAs quantum dots grown on GaAs buffer layers

The effect of thermal annealing on self-assembled uncapped InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) has been investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The TEM images showed that the lateral sizes and densities of the InAs QDs were not changed significantly up to 650 °C. When the InAs/GaAs QDs were annealed at 700 °C, while the lateral size of the InAs QDs increased, their density decreased. The InAs QDs disappeared at 800 °C. PL spectra showed that the peaks corresponding to the interband transitions of the InAs QDs shifted slightly toward the high-energy side, and the PL intensity decreased with increasing annealing temperature. These results indicate that the microstructural and the optical properties of self-assembled uncapped InAs/GaAs can be modified due to postgrowth thermal annealing.     

Soliton-like propagation of broadband terahertz pulses in a system of tunnel junctions

Soliton-like regimes of propagation of broadband terahertz pulses in a system of tunnel junctions have been theoretically studied taking into account the effect of quantum states higher in energy. This study has been performed beyond the approximation of slowly varying amplitudes standard for quasimonochromatic signals. It has been shown that the role of higher lying states is fundamentally important and is not reduced only to correction effects. Previously unknown soliton-like regimes of propagation, as well as the corresponding dynamics of a medium, have been analyzed. Nonlinear refraction processes have been taken into account. Conditions for self-focusing and defocusing of pulses have been revealed. A new type of localized terahertz “bullets” with sharp boundaries at a nonequilibrium initial population of tunneling states has been predicted. The main difference of these bullets from those previously considered in an optical range is that diffraction does not affect the formation of the former. In this case, the focusing effect caused by a tunneling transition is compensated by the defocusing effect of transitions to higher lying states under the conditions of applicability of the geometrical optics approximation.     

A structure for enhanced terahertz emission from a photoexcited semiconductor surface

A structure that can provide enhancement of terahertz emission from a semiconductor surface excited with femtosecond laser pulses is proposed. The structure consists of a semiconductor layer on a Si substrate with metal coating on the upper surface of the layer and a Si lens attached to the bottom of the substrate. The semiconductor is excited through a hole in the coating and emits terahertz radiation through the substrate lens. We demonstrate theoretically that the proposed structure can increase the terahertz yield by orders of magnitude as compared to the previously used schemes of terahertz emission from a semiconductor surface.