Time-resolved, pulsed terahertz spectroscopy has developed into a powerful tool to study charge carrier dynamics in semiconductors and semiconductor structures over the past decades. Covering the energy range from a few to about 100 meV, terahertz radiation is sensitive to the response of charge quasiparticles, e.g., free carriers, polarons, and excitons. The distinct spectral signatures of these different quasiparticles in the THz range allow their discrimination and characterization using pulsed THz radiation. This frequency region is also well suited for the study of phonon resonances and intraband transitions in low-dimensional systems. Moreover, using a pump-probe scheme, it is possible to monitor the nonequilibrium time evolution of carriers and low-energy excitations with sub-ps time resolution. Being an all-optical technique, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy is contact-free and noninvasive and hence suited to probe the conductivity of, particularly, nanostructured materials that are difficult or impossible to access with other methods. The latest developments in the application of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy to bulk and nanostructured semiconductors are reviewed.

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Carrier dynamics in semiconductors studied with time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy

Within the last several years, the field of terahertz science and technology has changed dramatically. Many new advances in the technology for generation, manipulation, and detection of terahertz radiation have revolutionized the field. Much of this interest has been inspired by the promise of valuable new applications for terahertz imaging and sensing. Among a long list of proposed uses, one finds compelling needs such as security screening and quality control, as well as whimsical notions such as counting the almonds in a bar of chocolate. This list has grown in parallel with the development of new technologies and new paradigms for imaging and sensing. Many of these proposed applications exploit the unique capabilities of terahertz radiation to penetrate common packaging materials and provide spectroscopic information about the materials within. Several of the techniques used for terahertz imaging have been borrowed from other, more well established fields such as x-ray computed tomography and synthetic aperture radar. Others have been developed exclusively for the terahertz field, and have no analogies in other portions of the spectrum. This review provides a comprehensive description of the various techniques which have been employed for terahertz image formation, as well as discussing numerous examples which illustrate the many exciting potential uses for these emerging technologies.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0034-4885/70/8/R02/pdf

Imaging with terahertz radiation

This article provides an overview and illustrative examples of how the electric and magnetic fields of intense terahertz transients can be used to resonantly, and even nonresonantly, control matter and light. It discusses the fundamental interaction mechanisms of intense terahertz radiation with matter.

Resonant and nonresonant control over matter and light by intense terahertz transients

Terahertz (THz) radiation, which lies in the far-infrared region, is at the interface of electronics and photonics. Narrow-band THz radiation can be produced by free-electron lasers and fast diodes. Broadband THz radiation can be produced by thermal sources and, more recently, by table-top laser-driven sources and by short electron bunches in accelerators, but so far only with low power. Here we report calculations and measurements that confirm the production of high-power broadband THz radiation from subpicosecond electron bunches in an accelerator. The average power is nearly 20 watts, several orders of magnitude higher than any existing source, which could enable various new applications. In particular, many materials have distinct absorptive and dispersive properties in this spectral range, so that THz imaging could reveal interesting features. For example, it would be possible to image the distribution of specific proteins or water in tissue, or buried metal layers in semiconductors; the present source would allow full-field, real-time capture of such images. High peak and average power THz sources are also critical in driving new nonlinear phenomena and for pump-probe studies of dynamical properties of materials.

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High-power terahertz radiation from relativistic electrons

Exploring dynamics in the far-infrared with terahertz spectroscopy.

We have generated sub-single-cycle pulses of electromagnetic radiation with pulse energies as high as 0.8 μJ and pulse lengths < 500 fs. The 10-dB width of the spectrum is 1.5 THz. The transmitter is a GaAs wafer illuminated at normal incidence by 120-fs, 770-nm pulses from a Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplifier system while a pulsed electric field is applied across the surface. The pulse energy of the far-infrared radiation is found to be a quadratic function of bias field and a nonmonotonic function of laser intensity.

Generation of high-power sub-single-cycle 500-fs electromagnetic pulses.

We have ionized Rydberg atoms using subpicosecond half-cycle electromagnetic pulses. The threshold electric field required to ionize a Rydberg state with effective quantum number ${\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{*}}$ is found to scale as ${\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{*}\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2}$ for states with ${\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{*}}$g13 in contradistinction to the ${\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{*}\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}4}$ threshold scaling for static field ionization and high order multiphoton ionization. This novel result is explained using a classical model.

Ionization of Rydberg atoms by subpicosecond half-cycle electromagnetic pulses.

We have studied the propagation of half-cycle (i.e., unipolar) electromagnetic pulses centered at terahertz frequencies, in free space, through apertures, and through focusing optics. The temporal pulse shape of an apertured half-cycle pulse is significantly altered during propagation, but retains much of its unipolar character after traveling more than 20 times the aperture dimension. When focused by an achromatic lens, a half-cycle pulse evolves into a single-cycle pulse at the focal waist and an inverted half-cycle pulse in the far field.

Propagation of half-cycle far infrared pulses

The ionization of Rydberg states by subpicosecond, unipolar electromagnetic-field pulses shows a strong orientation dependence. A small static electric field permits us to study Rydberg-Stark states with oriented permanent electric dipole moments. The probability for ionizing a Stark state depends on its energy and the orientation of its electric dipole moment with respect to the direction of the pulsed electric field. This orientation dependence is most prominent for pulse durations comparable to the classical orbit period. Classical simulations reproduce many of the observed features.

Ionization of oriented Rydberg states by subpicosecond half-cycle electromagnetic pulses.

We have studied the production of far-infrared (FIR) radiation in electric-field-biased 〈111〉 InP illuminated by 120-fs 770-nm laser pulses. The electric field is applied without electrodes: a 500-fs pulse of single-cycle radiation from a GaAs photoconducting switch acts as the bias. The observed FIR energy varies with the orientation of the InP sample, the laser polarization, and the direction and the magnitude of the bias field. These dependencies are used to place constraints on the nonlinear susceptibility tensor that is responsible for FIR generation.

D. You

Papers

Generation of high-power sub-single-cycle 500-fs electromagnetic pulses.

Ionization of Rydberg atoms by subpicosecond half-cycle electromagnetic pulses.

Propagation of half-cycle far infrared pulses

Ionization of oriented Rydberg states by subpicosecond half-cycle electromagnetic pulses.

Coherent generation of far-infrared radiation from InP