A High-Power Broadband Terahertz Source Enabled by Three-Dimensional Light Confinement in a Plasmonic Nanocavity
Abstract
The scope and potential uses of time-domain terahertz imaging and spectroscopy are mainly limited by the low optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency of photoconductive terahertz sources. State-of-theart photoconductive sources utilize short-carrier-lifetime semiconductors to recombine carriers that cannot contribute to efficient terahertz generation and cause additional thermal dissipation. Here, we present a novel photoconductive terahertz source that offers a significantly higher efficiency compared with terahertz sources fabricated on short-carrier-lifetime substrates. The key innovative feature of this source is the tight three-dimensional confinement of the optical pump beam around the terahertz nanoantennas that are used as radiating elements. This is achieved by means of a nanocavity formed by plasmonic structures and a distributed Bragg reflector. Consequently, almost all of the photo-generated carriers can be routed to the terahertz nanoantennas within a sub-picosecond time-scale. This results in a very strong, ultrafast current that drives the nanoantennas to produce broadband terahertz radiation. We experimentally demonstrate that this terahertz source can generate 4 mW pulsed terahertz radiation under an optical pump power of 720 mW over the 0.1–4 THz frequency range. This is the highest reported power level for terahertz radiation from a photoconductive terahertz source, representing more than an order of magnitude of enhancement in themore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Electrical Engineering Department
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1429327
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0016925
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 42 ENGINEERING; 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; Nanocavities; Nanophotonics and plasmonics
Citation Formats
Yardimci, Nezih Tolga, Cakmakyapan, Semih, Hemmati, Soroosh, and Jarrahi, Mona. A High-Power Broadband Terahertz Source Enabled by Three-Dimensional Light Confinement in a Plasmonic Nanocavity. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04553-4.
Yardimci, Nezih Tolga, Cakmakyapan, Semih, Hemmati, Soroosh, & Jarrahi, Mona. A High-Power Broadband Terahertz Source Enabled by Three-Dimensional Light Confinement in a Plasmonic Nanocavity. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04553-4
Yardimci, Nezih Tolga, Cakmakyapan, Semih, Hemmati, Soroosh, and Jarrahi, Mona. Fri .
"A High-Power Broadband Terahertz Source Enabled by Three-Dimensional Light Confinement in a Plasmonic Nanocavity". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04553-4. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1429327.
@article{osti_1429327,
title = {A High-Power Broadband Terahertz Source Enabled by Three-Dimensional Light Confinement in a Plasmonic Nanocavity},
author = {Yardimci, Nezih Tolga and Cakmakyapan, Semih and Hemmati, Soroosh and Jarrahi, Mona},
abstractNote = {The scope and potential uses of time-domain terahertz imaging and spectroscopy are mainly limited by the low optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency of photoconductive terahertz sources. State-of-theart photoconductive sources utilize short-carrier-lifetime semiconductors to recombine carriers that cannot contribute to efficient terahertz generation and cause additional thermal dissipation. Here, we present a novel photoconductive terahertz source that offers a significantly higher efficiency compared with terahertz sources fabricated on short-carrier-lifetime substrates. The key innovative feature of this source is the tight three-dimensional confinement of the optical pump beam around the terahertz nanoantennas that are used as radiating elements. This is achieved by means of a nanocavity formed by plasmonic structures and a distributed Bragg reflector. Consequently, almost all of the photo-generated carriers can be routed to the terahertz nanoantennas within a sub-picosecond time-scale. This results in a very strong, ultrafast current that drives the nanoantennas to produce broadband terahertz radiation. We experimentally demonstrate that this terahertz source can generate 4 mW pulsed terahertz radiation under an optical pump power of 720 mW over the 0.1–4 THz frequency range. This is the highest reported power level for terahertz radiation from a photoconductive terahertz source, representing more than an order of magnitude of enhancement in the optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency compared with state-of-the-art photoconductive terahertz sources fabricated on shortcarrier- lifetime substrates.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-017-04553-4},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 1,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Fri Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
Web of Science
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