† Corresponding author. E-mail:
Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0701005), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61427814 and 51807161), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, China (Grant No. 2019JZ-04).
We present a high-performance terahertz (THz) radiation source based on the photon-activated charge domain (PACD) quenched mode of GaAs photoconductive antennas (GaAs PCA). The THz radiation characteristics of the GaAs PCA under different operating modes are studied. Compared with the linear mode, the intensity of THz wave radiated by the GaAs PCA can be greatly enhanced due to the avalanche multiplication effect of carriers in the PACD quenched mode. The results show that when the carrier multiplication ratio is 16.92, the peak-to-peak value of THz field radiated in the PACD quenched mode increases by as much as about 4.19 times compared to the maximum values in the linear mode.
Terahertz (THz) radiation has great scientific research value and broad application prospects. One of the key bottlenecks hindering the development of THz technology is the lack of high power THz sources.[1–3] Photoconductive switch is a kind of switching device which is formed by the combination of pulse laser and photoconductor (such as Si, GaAs, InP). It has the advantages of fast response, sub-picoseconds trigger jitter, and high output power, and has a wide application background in the field of ultrafast optoelectronics.[4–6] One of the main applications is the generation of THz radiation by using femtosecond laser to trigger a GaAs photoconductive antenna (PCA). At present, all GaAs PCAs are operated with the linear mode. Although some of the work is done by using the plasmonic contact electrodes to obtain higher output power,[7,8] but overall, its terahertz radiation intensity is still relatively small, which limits the application of PCA.[9–11]
Under different dc or pulsed bias voltage and trigger light conditions, GaAs PCAs have two distinct operating modes, namely, the linear operation mode and the nonlinear operation mode (also known as high-gain quenched mode). The characteristics and physical essence of the linear operation mode are as follows: for each incident photon absorbed by GaAs PCA, an electron–hole pair is generated at most, without the multiplier effect of photo-generated carriers. When the bias electric field and trigger light energy of GaAs PCA are both above the thresholds, it will work in a nonlinear operation mode. Its typical feature and physical manifestation is the avalanche multiplier effect for the carriers, which is equivalent to 103–105 electron–hole pairs for each incident photon absorbed by GaAs PCA, and is manifested as avalanche photo-conductance behavior. Obviously, the output power capacity of GaAs PCA in the nonlinear operation mode is much higher than that in the linear operation mode. So far, there are no reports of THz waves generated by using femtosecond laser pulses to trigger GaAs PCA in the nonlinear operation mode.
We have verified theoretically and experimentally that under certain conditions the nonlinear model of GaAs PCA can be transformed into the quenched model of the photon-activated charge domain (PACD).[12–14] In other words, firstly, GaAs PCA is triggered under the threshold condition of nonlinear mode to cause carrier avalanche multiplication. Then the external conditions needed to maintain the carrier avalanche multiplication are destroyed and the carrier quickly exits the nonlinear mode and enters the linear mode. Finally, the GaAs PCA is shut off naturally in a very short time due to the depletion of the carriers, and the obvious locking-on waveform no longer appears, and the GaAs PCA will exhibit a linear avalanche photo-conductance. The quenching mode of the PACD, which reduces the holding time of the locking-on effect to a few nanoseconds, and can generate strong THz emission under femtosecond laser trigger. This is the GaAs PCA with avalanche multiplication mechanism.
Compared with the linear mode, the power capacity of the ultrafast electric pulse output from the GaAs PCA with PACD quenched mode can be greatly enhanced due to the avalanche multiplication effect of carriers. According to the current surge model, the THz electric field intensity of GaAs PCA is directly proportional to the first derivative of the electric pulse to time.[12,13] Therefore, it is feasible to obtain the strong THz radiation by using the PACD quenched mode of GaAs PCA.[14]
In this paper, the THz radiation characteristics of GaAs PCA with electrode gap of 0.927 mm are studied in linear operation mode and PACD quenched mode respectively. Compared with the linear operation mode, the intensity of the THz wave radiated by GaAs PCA can be greatly enhanced due to the avalanche multiplication effect of carriers in the high-gain quenched mode.
In order to detect both the THz waveform and the photocurrent flowing through the GaAs PCA at the same time, an oscilloscope (LeCroy WaveMaster 806Zi-A, 6 GHz bandwidth, 4× 40 GS/s max sample rate) is used in the GaAs PCA loop and the bandwidths of the transmission line and attenuator are 18 GHz. The THz time-domain spectroscopy system (THz-TDS) is used to detect the THz radiation by the GaAs PCA. The schematic diagram of the experimental setup is shown in Fig.
When the pump laser energy is 1 μJ, and the bias electric field of the GaAs PCA is below its threshold, it works in the linear operation mode. The main feature is that each photon absorbed by the GaAs material induces at most one electron–hole pair, the conductivity of the material has a linear relationship with the photon flux on the GaAs PCA. The bias voltage of the GaAs PCA is 500 V, 1000 V, 1500 V, 2000 V, 2500 V, and 3000 V, respectively, and the corresponding bias electric field is 5.39 kV/cm, 10.79 kV/cm, 16.18 kV/cm, 21.57 kV/cm, 26.97 kV/cm, and 32.36 kV/cm. The corresponding electric pulse waveform is obtained by the single trigger mode, as shown in Fig.
Then the THz time domain waveform is detected by using the THz-TDS, the results are shown in Fig.
When the bias electric field and the trigger laser energy are higher than their thresholds, the GaAs PCA will work in a nonlinear operation mode, as shown in Fig.
Based on the characteristics of the linear and nonlinear operation modes and the principle of the test circuit used in the experiment, the multiplication rate can be proposed to characterize the degree of the GaAs PCA operated with the high multiplication operation mode as follows:
![]() | Table 1. The multiplication rate and THz radiation in different working modes. . |
The THz radiations in different operation modes of GaAs PCA are detected by using the THz-TDS, as shown in Fig.
Finally, the THz spectra under different bias electric fields are obtained by fast Fourier transform (FFT), as shown in Fig.
In summary, a high-performance THz radiation source based on the PACD quenched mode of GaAs PCA is presented. We experimentally obtain the THz time-domain spectra of the GaAs PCA in different operation modes, and the PACD quenched mode is achieved at the bias electric field of 34.52 kV/cm. The results indicate that the amplitude of THz wave radiated by GaAs PCA can be greatly enhanced due to the avalanche multiplication effect of carriers in the PACD quenched mode. When the multiplication ratio is 16.92, the peak-to-peak amplitude of THz radiated in the PACD quenched mode is about 4.19 times of the maximum peak-to-peak values in the linear mode. In fact, we have experimentally realized a nonlinear GaAs PCA with a carrier multiplier of 103, and are currently in the process of preparing the new antenna system, which will be reported in the near future.
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