Enhancement of THz emission from semiconductor surfaces

Author

Johnston, M.B. ; Dowd, A. ; Whittaker, D.M. ; Corchia, A. ; Davies, A.G. ; Linfield, E.H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Cambridge Univ., UK

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Firstpage

48

Lastpage

51

Abstract

We have studied the generation of coherent pulses of terahertz (THz) radiation from semiconductor surfaces both experimentally and using a Monte-Carlo carrier dynamics simulation. Collimated THz beams are observed from surface-field THz emitters and three methods of improving the efficiency of these emitters are demonstrated: (i) by applying a magnetic field, (ii) by reducing the effective refractive index of the device and (iii) by altering the geometry of the device. An enhancement of 21× is seen in a prism based GaAs/InAs THz emitter.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Monte Carlo methods; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; magneto-optical effects; refractive index; semiconductor materials; submillimetre wave devices; submillimetre wave generation; GaAs-InAs; Monte-Carlo carrier dynamics simulation; THz emission enhancement; coherent pulses; collimated THz beams; device geometry; effective refractive index; efficiency; prism based GaAs/InAs THz emitter; semiconductor surfaces; surface-field THz emitters; Charge carrier processes; Gas lasers; Laser excitation; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Photonic band gap; Power lasers; Quantum cascade lasers; Semiconductor lasers; Surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Terahertz Electronics Proceedings, 2002. IEEE Tenth International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7630-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/THZ.2002.1037586

Filename

1037586