High-power pulsed terahertz radiation sources are highly in demand for time-domain terahertz imaging and spectroscopy systems. A common way to generate pulsed terahertz radiation is exciting a biased ultrafast photoconductor with a femtosecond optical pulse. The photo-generated carriers drift to a terahertz radiating element under the induced bias electric field and a pulsed terahertz radiation is generated. Developing photoconductive terahertz sources operating at telecommunication wavelengths (~1550 nm) is very attractive because of the availability of high-power, narrow-pulse-width, and compact fiber lasers at these wavelengths. However, photoconductors responsive to telecommunication wavelengths often have low resistivity due to their small bandgap energy, resulting in excessive dark current levels under an applied bias voltage. As a result, telecommunication-compatible photoconductive sources experience a premature thermal breakdown under high bias voltages and cannot offer high terahertz radiation powers. To address this limitation, we introduce a new type of telecommunication-compatible photoconductive terahertz source that does not require an externally applied bias voltage and relies on a built-in electric field formed at the interface between the photoconductor and terahertz antenna contact electrodes. By eliminating the bias voltage, the device operates at a zero dark current, enabling a highly reliable operation. We use an array of plasmonic nanoantennas as the terahertz radiating elements to achieve a broad terahertz radiation bandwidth and high optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency. We demonstrate pulsed terahertz radiation with powers exceeding 100 μW, enabling time-domain terahertz spectroscopy with a 100 dB dynamic range over a 0.1-3 THz bandwidth.
Compound semiconductor mid-wavelength infrared photodetectors operating at room temperature are the sensors of choice for demanding applications such as thermal imaging, heat-seeking, and spectroscopy. However, those detectors suffer from high dark current and thus normally require additional cooling accessories. In this work, we argue for the fundamental feasibility that by using nanowires coupled with plasmonic nano-antennae as photoabsorbers, the dark current can be largely reduced compared with typical planar devices. To demonstrate the idea, we simulate the device characteristics, such as dark current, responsivity, and detectivity, of InAsSb0.07 nanowire photodetectors, and compare those properties with the best research InAs photovoltaic diodes. The results show that the designed nanowire detectors offer over one-order lower dark current and enable a peak detectivity of 7.0×1010 cm Hz1/2W-1 at 3.5 μm. We believe this work will provide a guidance to the design of nanowire-based MWIR photodetectors and stimulate additional experimental and theoretical research studies.
To characterize surface recombination of nanowires, time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) is commonly implemented to correlate measured lifetime with the nonradiative effect at surface. In this work, we develop a threedimensional transient model to perform a numerical analysis of surface recombination for InGaAs nanowires on GaAs substrates. By mimicking a complete TRPL measurement process, we computationally calculate optical generation and emission of InGaAs nanowires, and numerically probe the carrier dynamics inside nanowires. It is found that the TRPL spectra are determined by a complex convolution of surface recombination velocity and incident wavelengths. In addition, we show that due to the three-dimensional geometry of nanowire, using a typical analytical equation to extract surface recombination velocity might be no longer valid. We believe these results provide an alternative approach for the computational analysis of TRPL measurements and surface properties for three-dimensional nanostructured devices.
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