Intense Terahertz Excitation of Semiconductors

Intense Terahertz Excitation of Semiconductors presents the first comprehensive treatment of high-power terahertz applications to semiconductors and low-dimensional semiconductor structures. Terahertz properties of semiconductors are in the center of scientific activities because of the need of high-speed electronics. This research monograph bridges the gap between microwave physics and photonics. It focuses on a core topic of semiconductor physics providing a full description of the state of the art of the field. The reader is introduced to new physical phenomena which occur in the terahertz frequency range at the transition from semi-classical physics with a classical field amplitude to the fully quantized limit with photons. The book covers a wide range of optical, optoelectronic, and nonlinear transport processes, presenting experimental results, clearly visualizing models and basic theories. Background information for future work and exhaustive references of current literature are given. A particularly valuable feature is the thorough discussion of various technical aspects of the terahertz range like the generation of high-power coherent radiation, optical components, instrumentation, and detection schemes of short intense pulses. The book complements, for the first time in form of a monograph, previous books on infrared physics which dealt with low-power optical and opto-electronic processes. It will be useful not only to scientists but also to advanced students who are interested in terahertz research.

Sergey D. Ganichev
Department of Physics
Universitat Regensburg
D93040 Regensburg
German
Willi Prettl
Department of Physics
Universitat Regensburg
D93040 Regensburg
Germany

Introduction

1

(4)

1 Experimental technique

5

(88)

1.1 Sources of high-power terahertz radiation

5

(29)

1.1.1 CO2 laser

7

(4)

1.1.2 Optically pumped terahertz molecular lasers

11

(5)

1.1.3 Tunable high-pressure TE-CO2 laser pumped terahertz molecular lasers

16

(5)

1.1.4 Free-electron lasers

21

(9)

1.1.5 Short coherent terahertz pulses

30

(4)

1.2 Optical components and methods in the THz range

34

(30)

1.2.1 Windows

34

(6)

1.2.2 Filters

40

(15)

1.2.3 Polarizers

55

(5)

1.2.4 Spectral analysis

60

(2)

1.2.5 Attenuators

62

(1)

1.2.6 Transmission through the atmosphere, liquid nitrogen, and liquid helium

63

(1)

1.3 Detection of pulsed terahertz radiation

64

(15)

1.3.1 Photon drag detectors

67

(2)

1.3.2 μ-photoconductivity detectors

69

(1)

1.3.3 Pyroelectric detectors

70

(2)

1.3.4 Atomic layer thermopile

72

(3)

1.3.5 New detection concepts

75

(4)

References

79

(14)

2 Tunneling in terahertz fields

93

(68)

2.1 Terahertz field induced tunneling

94

(34)

2.1.1 Ionization of deep impurities

94

(4)

2.1.2 Theory of tunneling ionization

98

(18)

2.1.3 Phonon-assisted tunneling ionization in the quasistatic limit

116

(2)

2.1.4 Tunneling ionization in the high-frequency limit

118

(3)

2.1.5 Transition to direct tunneling

121

(3)

2.1.6 Magnetic field effect on tunneling ionization

124

(1)

2.1.7 Tunneling ionization of charged impurities and the Poole—Frenkel effect

125

(2)

2.1.8 Terahertz tunneling as a method

127

(1)

2.2 Photon mediated tunneling in quantum wells

128

(8)

2.2.1 Resonant tunneling

130

(3)

2.2.2 Negative differential conductivity

133

(3)

2.3 Ponderomotive force stimulated tunneling

136

(16)

2.3.1 Radiation pressure enhanced tunneling

138

(7)

2.3.2 Tunneling enhancement in the near-zone field

145

(7)

References

152

(9)

3 Multiphoton excitation

161

(24)

3.1 Two-photon absorption

162

(3)

3.2 Fully developed multiphoton transitions

165

(10)

3.2.1 Nonlinear transmission

167

(3)

3.2.2 Nonlinear photon drag effect

170

(5)

3.3 Multiphoton transitions in low-dimensional systems

175

(6)

References

181

(4)

4 Saturation of absorption

185

(52)

4.1 Basics of optical saturation

187

(8)

4.1.1 Rabi oscillations

187

(2)

4.1.2 Relaxation

189

(6)

4.2 Low-power saturation

195

(9)

4.2.1 Nonlinear spectroscopy of impurities

195

(6)

4.2.2 Nonlinear cyclotron resonance

201

(3)

4.3 Saturation of inter-subband transitions in wide QWs

204

(2)

4.4 Reduction of depolarization shift in QWs

206

(3)

4.5 Saturation of direct transitions in bulk ρ-Ge

209

(4)

4.6 Pump-and-probe technique

213

(1)

4.7 Spin-sensitive bleaching

214

(5)

4.8 Rabi oscillations

219

(5)

References

224

(13)

5 Electron gas heating

237

(32)

5.1 Electron temperature limit and A-photoconductivity

238

(1)

5.2 Heating and absolute electron gas cooling

239

(1)

5.3 Dynamic inversion of μ-photoconductivity

240

(3)

5.4 Nonlinear μ-photoconductivity in 2DEG

243

(6)

5.4.1 Si-MOSFET structures

244

(3)

5.4.2 III-V-compound low-dimensional structures

247

(2)

5.5 Light impact ionization

249

(7)

5.5.1 Bulk InSb

251

(4)

5.5.2 Quantum well structures

255

(1)

5.6 Heating of phonons

256

(4)

References

260

(9)

6 Terahertz nonlinear optics

269

(22)

6.1 Nonlinear optical susceptibility

270

(3)

6.2 Terahertz second-order nonlinearity

273

(5)

6.3 Third-harmonic generation and four-wave mixing

278

(2)

6.4 Terahertz electrooptics

280

(4)

6.4.1 Terahertz side-bands of near-infrared radiation

280

(2)

6.4.2 Dynamic Franz–Keldysh and Stark effects

282

(2)

6.5 THz nonlinearities in semiconductor superlattices

284

(1)

References

285

(6)

7 Terahertz radiation induced currents

291

(88)

7.1 Photon drag effect

293

(18)

7.1.1 Direct optical transitions

294

(12)

7.1.2 Drude absorption

306

(2)

7.1.3 Photoionization of impurities and transitions between Zeeman-split levels

308

(3)

7.2 Linear photogalvanic effect

311

(20)

7.2.1 Bulk materials

316

(2)

7.2.2 Quantum wells

318

(4)

7.2.3 Magneto-photogalvanic effects

322

(3)

7.2.4 Magneto-gyrotropic effects in quantum wells

325

(6)

7.3 Spin photocurrents

331

(36)

7.3.1 Circular photogalvanic effect

332

(17)

7.3.2 Spin-galvanic effect

349

(12)

7.3.3 Circular photogalvanic effect versus spin-galvanic effect

361

(1)

7.3.4 Application of spin photocurrents

361

(3)

7.3.5 Monopolar spin orientation

364

(3)

References

367

(12)

8 Bloch oscillations

379

(20)

8.1 Superlattice transport

380

(6)

8.1.1 Miniband conductance

381

(2)

8.1.2 Wannier–St ark hopping

383

(1)

8.1.3 Sequential tunneling

384

(1)

8.1.4 Interplay between transport mechanisms

385

(1)

8.2 THz excitation of superlattices

386

(5)

8.3 Dynamic localization and negative conductivity

391

(2)

8.4 THz gain in superlattices

393

(2)

References

395

(4)

A Removal of spin degeneracy

399

(8)

A.1 Zinc-blende structure based QWs

401

(2)

References

403

(4)

B Symbol Glossary-Index

407

(6)

Index

413

(4)

Acknowledgement for reuse of figures

417

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Intense Terahertz Excitation of Semiconductors

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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