A High-Power Broadband Terahertz Source Enabled by Three-Dimensional Light Confinement in a Plasmonic Nanocavity

Yardimci, Nezih Tolga; Cakmakyapan, Semih; Hemmati, Soroosh; Jarrahi, Mona

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04553-4

Title: A High-Power Broadband Terahertz Source Enabled by Three-Dimensional Light Confinement in a Plasmonic Nanocavity

Journal Article · Fri Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04553-4· OSTI ID:1429327

Yardimci, Nezih Tolga ^[1];

^[1]; Hemmati, Soroosh ^[1]; Jarrahi, Mona ^[1]

Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Electrical Engineering Department

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.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0016925

OSTI ID:: 1429327

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 63 works

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