Quantum ratchet effects induced by terahertz radiation in GaN-based two-dimensional structures
W. Weber, L. E. Golub, S. N. Danilov, J. Karch, C. Reitmaier, B. Wittmann, V. V. Bel'kov, E. L. Ivchenko, Z. D. Kvon, N. Q. Vinh, A. F. G. van der Meer, B. Murdin, S. D. Ganichev
Photogalvanic effects are observed and investigated in wurtzite (0001)-oriented GaN/AlGaN low-dimensional structures excited by terahertz radiation. The structures are shown to represent linear quantum ratchets. Experimental and theoretical analysis exhibits that the observed photocurrents are related to the lack of an inversion center in the GaN-based heterojunctions.
Terahertz field induced photocurrents in graphene were studied experimentally and by microscopic modeling. Currents were generated by cw and pulsed laser radiation in large area as well as small-size exfoliated graphene samples. We review general symmetry considerations leading to photocurrents depending on linear and circular polarized radiation and then present a number of situations where photocurrents were detected. Starting with the photon drag effect under oblique incidence, we proceed to the photogalvanic effect enhancement in the reststrahlen band of SiC and edge-generated currents in …
Experimental and theoretical studies on ratchet effects in graphene with a lateral superlattice excited by alternating electric fields of terahertz frequency range are presented. A lateral superlatice deposited on top of monolayer graphene is formed either by periodically repeated metal stripes having different widths and spacings or by inter-digitated comb-like dual-grating-gate (DGG) structures. We show that the ratchet photocurrent excited by terahertz radiation and sensitive to the radiation polarization state can be efficiently controlled by the back gate driving the system through the Di…
Terahertz and gigahertz magneto-ratchets in graphene-based 2D metamaterials
University of Regensburg（雷根斯堡大学）；Université de Montpellier, CNRS（蒙彼利埃大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz（约翰内斯·古腾堡美因茨大学）；V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, National Academy of Science（V.拉什卡廖夫半导体物理研究所，乌克兰国家科学院）
We report on the observation of terahertz radiation induced photogalvanic currents in semiconductor heterostructures with one-dimensional lateral periodic potential. The potential is produced by etching a grating into the sample surface. The electric current response is well described by phenomenological theory including both the circular and linear photogalvanic effects. Experimental data demonstrate that the inversion asymmetry of the periodic lateral pattern can be varied by means of electron beam lithography to produce classical lateral ratchets. A novel microscopical mechanism for the pol…
We report on the study of the magnetic ratchet effect in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures superimposed with lateral superlattice formed by dual-grating gate structure. We demonstrate that irradiation of the superlattice with terahertz beam results in the dc ratchet current, which shows giant magneto-oscillations in the regime of Shubnikov de Haas oscillations. The oscillations have the same period and are in phase with the resistivity oscillations. Remarkably, their amplitude is greatly enhanced as compared to the ratchet current at zero magnetic field, and the envelope of these oscillations exhibit…
Nonlinear intensity dependence of ratchet currents induced by terahertz laser radiation in bilayer graphene with asymmetric periodic grating gates
University of Regensburg（雷根斯堡大学）；CENTERA Laboratories, Institute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences（波兰科学院高压物理研究所 CENTERA 实验室）；Ioffe Institute（约费研究所）；National Institute for Materials Science（日本国立材料研究所）
We report on the observation and systematic study of polarization sensitive magnetic quantum ratchet effects induced by alternating electric fields in the terahertz frequency range. The effects are detected in (Cd,Mn)Te-based quantum well (QW) structures with inter-digitated dual-grating-gate (DGG) lateral superlattices. A dc electric current excited by cw terahertz laser radiation shows 1/B-periodic oscillations with an amplitude much larger than the photocurrent at zero magnetic field. Variation of gate voltages applied to individual grating gates of the DGG enables us to change the degree a…
In this study, we investigate the cyclotron resonance effect in the first-order AC current, magnetic ratchet effect, and second harmonic generation in phosphorene in the presence of a steady tilted magnetic field and under THz laser radiation. We establish that various cyclotron resonances exist in the deduced currents based on the angular frequency of the incoming light. These resonances are dependent on the $ω_{c_{+}}$ value, a function of the carrier charge, the perpendicular magnetic field, and the effective masses along the armchair or zigzag edges. We discuss the direction and the magnit…
We study terahertz radiation induced ratchet currents in low dimensional semiconductor structures with a superimposed one-dimensional lateral periodic potential. The periodic potential is produced by etching a grating into the sample surface or depositing metal stripes periodically on the sample top. Microscopically, the photocurrent generation is based on the combined action of the lateral periodic potential, verified by transport measurements, and the in-plane modulated pumping caused by the lateral superlattice. We show that a substantial part of the total current is caused by the polarizat…
We report measurements of radiation transmission in the 0.220--0.325 THz frequency domain through GaN quantum wells grown on sapphire substrates at room and low temperatures. A significant enhancement of the transmitted beam intensity with the applied voltage on the devices under test is found. For a deeper understanding of the physical phenomena involved, these results are compared with a phenomenological theory of light transmission under electric bias relating the transmission enhancement to changes in the differential mobility of the two-dimensional electron gas.
We report on a tunable - by magnetic field and gate voltage - conversion of terahertz radiation into a dc current in spatially modulated bilayer graphene. We experimentally demonstrate that the underlying physics is related to the so-called ratchet effect. Our key findings are the direct observation of a sharp cyclotron resonance in the photocurrent and the demonstration of two effects caused by electron-electron interaction: the plasmonic splitting of the resonance due to long-range Coulomb coupling and the partial suppression of its second harmonic due to fast interparticle collisions. We de…
The advance of terahertz science and technology yet lays wait for the breakthrough in high-efficiency and high-power solid-state terahertz sources applicable at room temperature. Plasmon in two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) has long been pursued as a type of promising active medium for terahertz emitters. However, a high wall-plug efficiency sufficient for high-power operation has not been achieved. Here we report spontaneous terahertz emission tunable in a frequency range from 0.3 to 2.5 THz through electrical excitation of plasmon or plasmon-polariton modes in a grating-gate coupled AlGaN/…
We demonstrate THz intersubband absorption (15.6-26.1 meV) in m-plane AlGaN/GaN quantum wells. We find a trend of decreasing peak energy with increasing quantum well width, in agreement with theoretical expectations. However, a blue-shift of the transition energy of up to 14 meV was observed relative to the calculated values. This blue-shift is shown to decrease with decreasing charge density and is therefore attributed to many-body effects. Furthermore, a ~40% reduction in the linewidth (from roughly 8 to 5 meV) was obtained by reducing the total sheet density and inserting undoped AlGaN laye…
We describe studies on the nanoscale transport dynamics of carriers in strained AlN/GaN/AlN quantum wells: an electron-hole bilayer charge system with large difference in transport properties between the two charge layers. From electronic band diagram analysis, the presence of spatially separated two-dimensional electron and hole charge layers is predicted at opposite interfaces. Since these charge layers exhibit distinct spectral signatures at terahertz frequencies, a combination of terahertz and far-infrared spectroscopy enables us to extract (a) individual contributions to the total conduct…
We report on the observation of the ratchet effect -- generation of direct electric current in response to external terahertz (THz) radiation -- in bilayer graphene, where inversion symmetry is broken by an asymmetric dual-grating gate potential. As a central result, we demonstrate that at high temperature, $T = 150~\textrm{K}$, the ratchet current decreases at high frequencies as $ \propto 1/ω^2$, while at low temperature, $T = 4.2~\textrm{K}$, the frequency dependence becomes much stronger $\propto 1/ω^6$. The developed theory shows that the frequency dependence of the ratchet current is ver…
Using extensive Monte Carlo simulations we study numerically and analytically a photogalvanic effect, or ratchet, of directed electron transport induced by a microwave radiation on a semidisk Galton board of antidots in graphene. A comparison between usual two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) and electrons in graphene shows that ratchet currents are comparable at very low temperatures. However, a large mean free path in graphene should allow to have a strong ratchet transport at room temperatures. Also in graphene the ratchet transport emerges even for unpolarized radiation. These properties op…
In a GaN/AlGaN field-effect terahertz detector, the directional photocurrent is mapped in the two-dimensional space of the gate voltage and the drain/source bias. It is found that not only the magnitude, but also the polarity, of the photocurrent can be tuned. A quasistatic self-mixing model taking into account the localized terahertz field provides a quantitative description of the detector characteristics. Strongly localized self-mixing is confirmed. It is therefore important to engineer the spatial distribution of the terahertz field and its coupling to the field-effect channel on the sub-m…
The magneto-gyrotropic photogalvanic and spin-galvanic effects are observed in (0001)-oriented GaN/AlGaN heterojunctions excited by terahertz radiation. We show that free-carrier absorption of linearly or circularly polarized terahertz radiation in low-dimensional structures causes an electric photocurrent in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field. Microscopic mechanisms of these photocurrents based on spin-related phenomena are discussed. Properties of the magneto-gyrotropic and spin-galvanic effects specific for hexagonal heterostructures are analyzed.
THz ratchet effect in HgTe interdigitated structures
University of Regensburg（雷根斯堡大学）；Institute of High Pressure Physics PAS（波兰科学院高压物理研究所）；Ioffe Institute（约费研究所）；Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences（波兰科学院物理研究所）；Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences（俄罗斯科学院西伯利亚分校半导体物理研究所）；Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, Université de Montpellier, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique（蒙彼利埃大学夏尔·库隆实验室（法国国家科学研究中心））
We report on the observation of magnetic quantum ratchet effect in (Cd,Mn)Te- and CdTe-based quantum well structures with an asymmetric lateral dual grating gate superlattice subjected to an external magnetic field applied normal to the quantum well plane. A dc electric current excited by cw terahertz laser radiation shows 1/B-oscillations with an amplitude much larger as compared to the photocurrent at zero magnetic field. We show that the photocurrent is caused by the combined action of a spatially periodic in-plane potential and the spatially modulated radiation due to the near field effect…
We report on the observation of the magnetic quantum ratchet effect in graphene with a lateral dual-grating top gate (DGG) superlattice. We show that the THz ratchet current exhibits sign-alternating magneto-oscillations due to the Shubnikov-de Haas effect. The amplitude of these oscillations is greatly enhanced as compared to the ratchet effect at zero magnetic field. The direction of the current is determined by the lateral asymmetry which can be controlled by variation of gate potentials in DGG. We also study the dependence of the ratchet current on the orientation of the terahertz electric…
We report on the observation of magnetic quantum ratchet effect in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors on silicon surface (Si-MOSFETs). We show that the excitation of an unbiased transistor by ac electric field of terahertz radiation at normal incidence leads to a direct electric current between the source and drain contacts if the transistor is subjected to an in-plane magnetic field. The current rises linearly with the magnetic field strength and quadratically with the ac electric field amplitude. It depends on the polarization state of the ac field and can be induced by both …
The sensitivity of direct terahertz detectors based on self-mixing of terahertz electromagnetic wave in field-effect transistors is being improved with noise-equivalent power close to that of Schottky-barrier-diode detectors. Here we report such detectors based on AlGaN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas at 77~K are able to sense broadband and incoherent terahertz radiation. The measured photocurrent as a function of the gate voltage agrees well with the self-mixing model and the spectral response is mainly determined by the antenna. A Fourier-transform spectrometer equipped with detectors desig…
We develop a theoretic description of the photogalvanic current induced by a high frequency radiation in asymmetric nanostructures and show that it describes well the results of numerical simulations. Our studies allow to understand the origin of the electronic ratchet transport in such systems and show that they can be used for creation of new types of detectors operating at room temperature in a terahertz radiation range.
The effect of a tunable, externally coupled Fabry-Pérot cavity to resonantly enhance the optical Hall effect signatures at terahertz frequencies produced by a traditional Drude-like two-dimensional electron gas is shown and discussed in this communication. As a result, the detection of optical Hall effect signatures at conveniently obtainable magnetic fields, for example by neodymium permanent magnets, is demonstrated. An AlInN/GaN-based high electron mobility transistor structure grown on a sapphire substrate is used for the experiment. The optical Hall effect signatures and their dispersions…
We report on the development of the first integrated mid-infrared, far-infrared and terahertz optical Hall effect instrument, covering an ultra wide spectral range from 3 cm$^{-1}$ to 7000 cm$^{-1}$ (0.1-210 THz or 0.4-870 meV). The instrument comprises four sub-systems, where the magneto-cryostat-transfer sub-system enables the usage of the magneto-cryostat sub-system with the mid-infrared ellipsometer sub-system, and the far-infrared/terahertz ellipsometer sub-system. Both ellipsometer sub-systems can be used as variable angle-of-incidence spectroscopic ellipsometers in reflection or transmi…
