THz pulses from the creation of polarized electron-hole pairs in biased quantum wells

We report generation of coherent terahertz electromagnetic transients from GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As quantum wells in perpendicular fields. Although, at low temperature, the quantum well barriers suppress the transport current perpendicular to the layers by at least two orders of magnitude compared to bulk,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 1992-10, Vol.61 (17), p.2009-2011
Main Authors: PLANKEN, P. C. M, NUSS, M. C, KNOX, W. H, MILLER, D. A. B, GOOSSEN, K. W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Optoelectronic devices
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
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Summary:We report generation of coherent terahertz electromagnetic transients from GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As quantum wells in perpendicular fields. Although, at low temperature, the quantum well barriers suppress the transport current perpendicular to the layers by at least two orders of magnitude compared to bulk, we observe terahertz signals that are comparable in strength to those generated from bulk GaAs surfaces. This directly proves that the field-induced polarization of photoexcited electron-hole pairs is an important mechanism for the generation of terahertz radiation at semiconductor surfaces.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.108342