We study the carrier dynamics in epitaxially grown graphene in the range of photon energies from 10 to 250 meV. The experiments complemented by microscopic modeling reveal that the carrier relaxation ...is significantly slowed down as the photon energy is tuned to values below the optical-phonon frequency; however, owing to the presence of hot carriers, optical-phonon emission is still the predominant relaxation process. For photon energies about twice the value of the Fermi energy, a transition from pump-induced transmission to pump-induced absorption occurs due to the interplay of interband and intraband processes.
Josephson plasma waves are linear electromagnetic modes that propagate along the planes of cuprate superconductors, sustained by interlayer tunnelling supercurrents. For strong electromagnetic ...fields, as the supercurrents approach the critical value, the electrodynamics become highly nonlinear. Josephson plasma solitons (JPSs) are breather excitations predicted in this regime, bound vortex-antivortex pairs that propagate coherently without dispersion. We experimentally demonstrate the excitation of a JPS in La1.84Sr0.16CuO4, using intense narrowband radiation from an infrared free-electron laser tuned to the 2-THz Josephson plasma resonance. The JPS becomes observable as it causes a transparency window in the opaque spectral region immediately below the plasma resonance. Optical control of magnetic-flux-carrying solitons may lead to new applications in terahertz-frequency plasmonics, in information storage and transport and in the manipulation of high-Tc superconductivity.
We present a microscopic explanation of the controversially discussed transient negative differential transmission observed in degenerate optical pump-probe measurements in graphene. Our approach is ...based on the density matrix formalism allowing a time- and momentum-resolved study of carrier-light, carrier-carrier, and carrier-phonon interaction on microscopic footing. We show that phonon-assisted optical intraband transitions give rise to transient absorption in the optically excited hot carrier system counteracting pure absorption bleaching of interband transitions. While interband transition bleaching is relevant in the first hundreds of fs after the excitation, intraband absorption sets in at later times. In particular, in the low excitation regime, these intraband absorption processes prevail over the absorption bleaching resulting in a zero crossing of the differential transmission. Our findings are in good qualitative agreement with recent experimental pump-probe studies.
Photoconductive terahertz (THz) emitters have been fulfilling many demands required for table-top THz time-domain spectroscopy up to 3–4 THz. In contrast to the widely used photoconductive materials ...such as GaAs and InGaAs, Ge is a nonpolar semiconductor characterized by a gapless transmission in the THz region due to absence of one-phonon absorption. We present here the realization of a Ge-based photoconductive THz emitter with a smooth broadband spectrum extending up to 13 THz and compare its performance with a GaAs-based analogue. We show that the spectral bandwidth of the Ge emitter is limited mainly by the laser pulse width (65 fs) and, thus, can be potentially extended to even much higher THz frequencies.
We report on the generation of impulsive terahertz (THz) radiation with 36 kV/cm vacuum electric field (1.5 mW average thermal power) at 250 kHz repetition rate and a high NIR-to-THz conversion ...efficiency of 2 x 10(-3). This is achieved by photoexciting biased large-area photoconductive emitter with NIR fs pulses of microJ pulse energy. We demonstrate focussing of the THz beam by tailoring the pulse front of the exciting laser beam without any focussing element for the THz beam. A high dynamic range of 10(4) signal-to-noise is obtained with an amplifier based system.
Carrier relaxation is a key issue in determining the efficiency of semiconductor optoelectronic device operation. Devices incorporating semiconductor quantum dots have the potential to overcome many ...of the limitations of quantum-well-based devices because of the predicted long quantum-dot excited-state lifetimes. For example, the population inversion required for terahertz laser operation in quantum-well-based devices (quantum-cascade lasers) is fundamentally limited by efficient scattering between the laser levels, which form a continuum in the plane of the quantum well. In this context, semiconductor quantum dots are a highly attractive alternative for terahertz devices, because of their intrinsic discrete energy levels. Here, we present the first measurements, and theoretical description, of the intersublevel carrier relaxation in quantum dots for transition energies in the few terahertz range. Long intradot relaxation times (1.5 ns) are found for level separations of 14 meV (3.4 THz), decreasing very strongly to ∼2 ps at 30 meV (7 THz), in very good agreement with our microscopic theory of the carrier relaxation process. Our studies pave the way for quantum-dot terahertz device development, providing the fundamental knowledge of carrier relaxation times required for optimum device design.
The Landau level laser was proposed long ago as a unique source of monochromatic radiation that would be widely tunable in the THz and infrared spectral ranges using a magnetic field. However, ...despite many efforts, this appealing concept never progressed to the design of a reliable device. This is because of the efficient Auger scattering of Landau-quantized electrons, an intrinsic non-radiative recombination channel that eventually gains over cyclotron emission in all materials studied so far (conventional semiconductors with parabolic bands, but also in graphene with massless electrons). Auger processes are favoured in these systems because the Landau levels (or their subsets) are equally spaced in energy. Here, we show that this scheme does not apply to massless Kane electrons in gapless HgCdTe, where undesirable Auger scattering is strongly suppressed and sizeable cyclotron emission is observed. The gapless HgCdTe thus appears as a material of choice for future Landau level lasers.
We directly observe longitudinal electromagnetic fields in focused freely propagating terahertz (THz) beams of radial and linear polarization. Employing electro-optic detection, which is phase ...sensitive, allows one to selectively detect longitudinal and transverse field components. A phase shift of π 2 between the transverse and longitudinal field components is revealed. This phase shift is of universal nature, as it does not depend on the mode, frequency and focusing conditions. We show that the universal phase relation is a direct consequence of the divergence-free nature of electromagnetic waves in vacuum. In the experiments, we observe the phase shift of π 2 for all frequency components of single-cycle THz radiation pulses of both radial and linear polarization. Additionally, we show that the longitudinal field of a radially polarized THz beam has a smaller spot size as compared with the transverse field of a linearly polarized beam that is focused under the same conditions. For field-sensitive measurements this property can be exploited even for moderate focusing conditions. Furthermore, the phase-sensitive detection of longitudinal electromagnetic fields opens up new possibilities to study their interaction with electronic excitations in semiconductor nanostructures.
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