Presented here is the development and demonstration of a tunable cavity-enhanced terahertz frequency-domain optical Hall effect technique. The cavity consists of at least one fixed and one tunable Fabry-Pérot resonator. The approach is suitable for enhancement of the optical signatures produced by the optical Hall effect in semi-transparent conductive layer structures with plane parallel interfaces. The physical principle is the constructive interference of electric field components that undergo multiple optical Hall effect induced polarization rotations upon multiple light passages through the conductive layer stack. Tuning one of the cavity parameters, such as the external cavity thickness, permits shifting of the frequencies of the constructive interference, and enhancement of the optical signatures produced by the optical Hall effect can be obtained over large spectral regions. A cavity-tuning optical stage and gas flow cell are used as examples of instruments that exploit tuning an external cavity to enhance polarization changes in a reflected terahertz beam. Permanent magnets are used to provide the necessary external magnetic field. Conveniently, the highly reflective surface of a permanent magnet can be used to create the tunable external cavity. The signal enhancement allows the extraction of the free charge carrier properties of thin films, and can eliminate the need for expensive super-conducting magnets. Furthermore, the thickness of the external cavity establishes an additional independent measurement condition, similar to, for example, the magnetic field strength, terahertz frequency, and angle of incidence. A high electron mobility transistor structure and epitaxial graphene are studied as examples. We discuss the theoretical background, instrument design, data acquisition, and data analysis procedures.
Vertical cavity surface emitting terahertz lasers can be realized in conventional semiconductor microcavities with embedded quantum wells in the strong coupling regime. The cavity is to be pumped optically at half the frequency of the 2p exciton state. Once a threshold population of 2p excitons is achieved, a stimulated terahertz transition populates the lower exciton-polariton branch, and the cavity starts emitting laser light both in the optical and terahertz ranges. The lasing threshold is sensitive to the statistics of photons of the pumping light.
We present optically tunable magnetic 3D metamaterials at terahertz (THz) frequencies which exhibit a tuning range of ~30% of the resonance frequency. This is accomplished by fabricating 3D array structures consisting of double-split-ring resonators (DSRRs) on silicon-on-sapphire, fabricated using multilayer electroplating. Photoexcitation of free carriers in the silicon within the capacitive region of the DSRR results in a red-shift of the resonant frequency from 1.74 THz to 1.16 THz. The observed frequency shift leads to a transition from a magnetic-to-bianisotropic response as verified thro…
A portion of the electromagnetic wave spectrum between $\sim 0.1$ and $\sim 10$ terahertz (THz) suffers from the lack of powerful, effective, easy-to-use and inexpensive emitters, detectors and mixers. We propose a multilayer graphene -- boron-nitride heterostructure which is able to emit radiation in the frequency range $\sim 0.1-30$ THz with the power density up to $\sim 0.5$ W/cm$^2$ at room temperature. The proposed device is extremely thin, light, flexible, almost invisible and may completely cover the needs of science and technology in the sources of terahertz radiation.
Perfect absorption of radiation in a graphene sheet may play a pivotal role in the realization of technologically relevant optoelectronic devices. In particular, perfect absorption of radiation in the terahertz (THz) spectral range would tremendously boost the utility of graphene in this difficult range of photon energies, which still lacks cheap and robust devices operating at room temperature. In this work we show that unpatterned graphene flakes deposited on appropriate substrates can display gate-tunable coherent perfect absorption (CPA) in the THz spectral range. We present theoretical es…
Switchable metamaterials offer unique solutions for efficiently manipulating electromagnetic waves, particularly for terahertz waves, which has been difficult since naturally occurring materials rarely respond to terahertz frequencies controllably. However, few terahertz modulators demonstrated to date exhibit simultaneously low attenuation and high modulation depth. In this letter we propose a new class of electrically-tunable terahertz metamaterial modulators employing metallic frequency-selective-surfaces (FSS) in conjunction with capacitively-tunable layers of electrons, promising near 100…
As the variation of temperature alters the intrinsic carrier density in a semiconductor, numerical simulations indicate that the consequent variation of the relative permittivity in the terahertz regime provides a way to realize thermally tunable split-ring resonators. Electromagnetic metasurfaces and metamaterials that are thermally tunable in the terahertz regime can thus be implemented.
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…
Using terahertz time domain spectroscopy we demonstrate tunable polarization rotation and circular dichroism in intrinsically nonchiral planar terahertz metamaterials without twofold rotational symmetry. The observed effect is due to extrinsic chirality arising from the mutual orientation of the metamaterial plane and the propagation direction of the incident terahertz wave.
We theoretically consider infrared-driven hyperbolic metamaterials able to spatially filtering terahertz radiation. The metamaterial is a slab made of alternating semiconductor and dielectric layers whose homogenized uniaxial response, at terahertz frequencies, shows principal permittivities of different signs. The gap provided by metamaterial hyperbolic dispersion allows the slab to stop spatial frequencies within a bandwidth tunable by changing the infrared radiation intensity. We numerically prove the device functionality by resorting to full wave simulation coupled to the dynamics of charg…
A novel mechanism to realize dynamically tunable electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) analogue in the terahertz (THz) regime is proposed. By putting the electrically controllable monolayer graphene under the dark resonator, the amplitude of the EIT resonance in the metal-based metamaterial can be modulated substantially via altering the Fermi level of graphene. The amplitude modulation can be attributed to the change in the damping rate of the dark mode caused by the recombination effect of the conductive graphene. This work provides an alternative way to achieve tunable slow light e…
Flexible manipulation of terahertz-wave polarization during the generation process is very important for terahertz applications, especially for the next-generation on-chip functional terahertz sources. However, current terahertz emitters could not satisfy such demand, hence calling for new mechanism and conceptually new terahertz source. Here we demonstrate a magnetic-field-controlled, highly-efficient, cost-effective, and broadband terahertz source with flexible switch of terahertz polarization states in ferromagnetic heterostructures driven by femtosecond laser pulses. We verify that the chi…
Tunable terahertz plasmons are essential for reconfigurable photonics, which have been demonstrated in graphene through gating, though with relatively weak responses. Here, we demonstrate strong terahertz plasmons in graphite thin films via infrared spectroscopy, with dramatic tunability by even a moderate temperature change or an in-situ bias voltage. Meanwhile, through magneto-plasmon studies, we reveal that massive electrons and massless Dirac holes make comparable contributions to the plasmon response. Our study not only sets up a platform for further exploration of two-component plasmas, …
We demonstrate a terahertz (THz) frequency comb that is flexible in terms of its frequency range and the number and spacing of comb lines. We use a combination of near-infrared laser diodes, phase modulation and opto-electronic frequency conversion. The THz comb lines are characterized to be < 10 MHz by resolving the pressure dependent collisional broadening of an ammonia molecule rotational mode.
Optical modulators are essential parts of photonic circuits to encode electro-optical signals to the optical domain. Here, using arrays of multipixel toroidal plasmonic terahertz (THz) metamolecules, we developed a plasmonic metamodulator with high efficiency and tunability. Using the ultrasensitivity of the excited toroidal momentum to the incident THz beam power, we numerically and experimentally studied the plasmonic response of the proposed device. We showed that the proposed THz toroidal metamodulator have strong potential to be employed for practical advanced communication applications.
Chevalier et al. (Science, 15 November 2019, p. 856-860) report mathematical formulas and a table predicting the threshold and the output power of terahertz molecular lasers based on various molecules. We show that these formulas are not coherent with the simple model used to describe this kind of laser, and that they largely overestimate the conversion efficiency. We suggest an alternative calculation.
We present an experimental and numerical study of a terahertz metamaterial with a nonlinear response that is controllable via the relative structural positioning of two stacked split ring resonator arrays. The first array is fabricated on an n-doped GaAs substrate and the second array is fabricated vertically above the first using a polyimide spacer layer. Due to GaAs carrier dynamics, the on-resonance terahertz transmission at 0.4 THz varies in a nonlinear manner with incident terahertz power. The second resonator layer dampens this nonlinear response. In samples where the two layers are alig…
We report on the development, testing, and performance analysis of a bow-tie resonant cavity for terahertz (THz) radiation, injected with a continuous-wave 2.55 THz quantum cascade laser. The bow-tie cavity employs a wire-grid polarizer as input/output coupler and a pair of copper spherical mirrors coated with an unprotected 500 nm thick gold layer. The improvements with respect to previous setups have led to a measured finesse value F=123, and a quality factor Q = 5.1x10^5. The resonator performances and the relevant parameters are theoretically predicted and discussed, and a comparison among…
All-dielectric metamaterials composed of high index and low loss dielectric resonators have become a promising way for high-efficient optical devices. However, fabricating terahertz all-dielectric metamaterials and actively tuning their properties still remain challenges. In this paper, an effective method has been developed to prepare high-quality microspheres based all-dielectric metamaterial operating in terahertz (THz) range. Then, we propose a magnetically tunable THz all-dielectric metamaterial based on liquid crystal (LC). The all-dielectric metamaterial is immersed into LC and tuned by…
Pulse shaping is important for communications, spectroscopy, and other applications that require high peak power and pulsed operation, such as radar systems. Unfortunately, pulse shaping remains largely elusive for terahertz (THz) frequencies. To address this void, a comprehensive study on the dispersion tunability properties of THz chirped pulses traveling through a dielectric-lined hollow-core waveguide loaded with a helical graphene ribbon is presented.
Fano resonance is widely discussed in designing novel terahertz components, such as sensors, filters, modulators, and group delay modules. Usually, high quality (Q) factor and flexible tunability of Fano resonance are key requirements for these applications. Here, we present tunable terahertz Fano resonance with a Q factor of 2095 at 0.439 THz in coupled terahertz whispering-gallery-mode resonators (WGMRs). Coupling between a relatively low Q (578) quartz ring and a high Q (2095) silicon ring is employed to generate the Fano resonance. The resonant frequency of the Fano resonance can be active…
We propose a composite multilayer structure consist of graphene Tamm plasmon and Bragg reflector with defect layer to realize the low threshold and tunable optical bistability (OB) at the terahertz frequencies. This low-threshold OB originates from the couple of the Tamm plasmon (TP) and the defect mode (DM). We discuss the influence of graphene and the DM on the hysteretic response of the TM-polarized reflected light. It is found that the switch-up and switch-down threshold required to observe the optical bistable behavior are lowered markedly due to the excitation of the TP and DM. Besides, …
We report a new scheme of realizing terahertz fingerprint detection with ultrahigh sensitivity. Instead of using the direct absorption of terahertz through a bare sample in the regular transmission scheme, a cavity mode resonating at the characteristic frequency of the sample is used and due to the high dependence of the cavity mode transmission on the material loss, an amplified transmission decaying is observed when the sample is loaded into the cavity. Furthermore, this scheme retains the feature of substance identification. A one-dimensional photonic crystal cavity is used as the example f…
We theoretically and numerically demonstrate an actively tunable slow light in a hybrid metal-graphene metamaterial in the terahertz (THz) regime. In the unit cell, the near field coupling between the metallic elements including the bright cut wire resonator and the dark double split-ring resonator gives rises to a pronounced transmission peak. By positioning a monolayer graphene under the dark mode resonator, an active modulation of the near field coupling is achieved via shifting the Fermi level of graphene. The physical origin can be attributed to the variation in the damping rate of the da…
We report on a giant Faraday effect in an electron plasma in n-InSb probed via polarization-resolved terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy. Polarization rotation angles and ellipticities reach as large as π/2 and 1, respectively, over a wide frequency range (0.3-2.5 THz) at magnetic fields of a few Tesla. The experimental results together with theoretical simulations show its promising ability to construct broadband and tunable THz polarization optics, such as a circular polarizer, half-wave plate, and polarization modulators.
We theoretically investigate the terahertz dielectric response of a semiconductor slab hosting an infrared photoinduced grating. The periodic structure is due to the charge carries photo-excited by the interference of two tilted infrared plane waves so that the grating depth and period can be tuned by modifying the beam intensities and incidence angles, respectively. In the case where the grating period is much smaller than the terahertz wavelength, we numerically evaluate the ordinary and extraordinary component of the effective permittivity tensor by resorting to electromagnetic full-wave si…
Coherent perfect absorber (CPA) was proposed as the time-reversed counterpart to laser: a resonator containing lossy medium instead of gain medium can absorb the coherent optical fields completely. Here, we exploit a monolayer graphene to realize the CPA in a non-resonant manner. It is found that quasi-CPA point exists in the terahertz regime for suspending monolayer graphene, and the CPA can be implemented with the assistant of proper phase modulation among two incident beams at the quasi-CPA frequencies. The graphene based CPA is found of broadband angular selectivity: CPA point splits into …
We systematically study the pump-wavelength dependence of terahertz pulse generation in thin-film spintronic THz emitters composed of a ferromagnetic Fe layer between adjacent nonmagnetic W and Pt layers. We find that the efficiency of THz generation is essentially at for excitation by 150 fs pulses with center wavelengths ranging from 900 to 1500 nm, demonstrating that the spin current does not depend strongly on the pump photon energy. We show that the inclusion of dielectric overlayers of TiO2 and SiO2, designed for a particular excitation wavelength, can enhance the terahertz emission by a…
Plasmonic detectors have the potential to provide a method of rapid spectroscopy without the need of moving mirrors or gratings. Previous measurements have demonstrated frequency tunable detection based on plasmonic excitations, however these devices were either small area, polarization dependent and/or required e-beam lithography. We demonstrate that large area high sensitivity THz plasmonic detection can be achieved using self-assembly nanosphere lithography. We achieve a submicron feature size grid covering a detector area of 4 mm^2. The absorbance at the fundamental, third and 5th harmonic…
Photonic crystals and metamaterials have emerged as two classes of tailorable materials that enable precise control of light. Plasmonic crystals, which can be thought of as photonic crystals fabricated from plasmonic materials, Bragg scatter incident electromagnetic waves from a repeated unit cell. However, plasmonic crystals, like metamaterials, are composed of subwavelength unit cells. Here, we study terahertz plasmonic crystals of several periods in a two dimensional electron gas. This plasmonic medium is both extremely subwavelength ($\approx λ/100$) and reconfigurable through the applicat…
We demonstrate thermally tunable superconductor hole array with active control over their resonant transmission induced by surface plasmon polaritons . The array was lithographically fabricated on high temperature YBCO superconductor and characterized by terahertz-time domain spectroscopy. We observe a clear transition from the virtual excitation of the surface plasmon mode to the real surface plasmon mode. The highly tunable superconducting plasmonic hole arrays may have promising applications in the design of low-loss, large dynamic range amplitude modulation, and surface plasmon based terah…
Ultrafast optical excitation with intense mid-infrared and terahertz pulses has emerged as a new tool to control materials dynamically. As most experiments are performed with femtosecond pulse excitation, typical lifetimes of most light-induced phenomena in solids are of only few picoseconds. Yet, many scientific applications require longer drive pulses and lifetimes. Here, we describe a mid-infrared pump - terahertz-probe setup based on a CO$\mathrm{_2}$ laser seeded with 10.6 $\mathrmμ$m wavelength pulses from an optical parametric amplifier, itself pumped by a Ti:Al$\mathrm{_2}$O$\mathrm{_3…
Ultrafast atomic vibrations mediate heat transport, serve as fingerprints for chemical bonds and drive phase transitions in condensed matter systems. Light pulses shorter than the atomic oscillation period can not only probe, but even stimulate and control collective excitations. In general, such interactions are performed with free-propagating pulses. Here, we demonstrate intra-cavity excitation and time-domain sampling of coherent optical phonons inside an active laser oscillator. Employing real-time spectral interferometry, we reveal that Terahertz beats of Raman-active optical phonons can …
We recently demonstrated a widely tunable THz molecular laser and reported mathematical formulas and a table for comparing how various molecules would perform as such lasers (Chevalier et al., Science, 15 November 2019, p. 856-860). Here we correct the value of a single parameter used to calculate the table (see Erratum for Chevalier et al.), thereby eliminating the concerns raised by Lampin and Barbieri (Lampin et al., arXiv:2004.04422). We also show that our simplified model for the output THz power is a better approximation than the alternative one proposed in the technical comment.
We consider a periodically gated two-dimensional electron system, with a central gate finger biased independently creating a tunable plasmonic cavity in a planar plasmonic crystal. We demonstrate that the plasmons resonantly excited in the periodic plasmonic lattice by incident terahertz radiation can strongly pump the cavity plasmon modes leading to a deep sub-wavelength concentration of terahertz energy with giant electric field enhancement factor up to 10000.
Graphene, owing to its ability to support plasmon polariton waves in the terahertz frequency range, enables the miniaturization of antennas to allow wireless communications among nanosystems. One of the main challenges in the demonstration of graphene antennas is finding suitable terahertz sources to feed the antenna. This paper estimates the performance of a graphene RF plasmonic micro-antenna fed with a photoconductive source. The terahertz source is modeled and, by means of a full-wave EM solver, the radiated power of the device is estimated with respect to material, laser illumination and …
Controlling light polarization is one of the most essential routines in modern optical technology. Since the demonstration of optical pulse shaping by spatial light modulators and its potential in controlling the quantum reaction pathways, it paved the way for many applications as a coherent control of the photoionization process or as polarization shaping of terahertz (THz) pulses. Here, we evidenced efficient nonresonant and noncollinear $χ^{(2)}$-type light-matter interaction in femtosecond polarization-sensitive time-resolved optical measurements. Such nonlinear optical interaction of visi…
Recently, phase-change materials (PCMs) have drawn more attention due to the dynamically tunable optical properties. Here, we investigate the active control of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) analogue based on terahertz (THz) metamaterials integrated with vanadium oxide (VO2). Utilizing the insulator-to-metal transition of VO2, the amplitude of EIT peak can be actively modulated with a significant modulation depth. Meanwhile the group delay within the transparent window can also be dynamically tuned, achieving the active control of slow light effect. Furthermore, we also introdu…
The 1-10 terahertz (THz) spectral window is emerging as a key region for plenty of applications, requiring not yet available continuous-wave room-temperature THz spectrometers with high spectral purity and ultra-broad tunability. In this regard, the spectral features of stabilized telecom sources can actually be transferred to the THz range by difference frequency generation, considering that the width of the accessible THz spectrum generally scales with the area involved in the nonlinear interaction. For this reason, in this paper we extensively discuss the role of Lithium Niobate (LN) channe…
As we read this text, our eyes dynamically adjust the focal length to keep the line image in focus on the retina. Similarly, in many optics applications the focal length must be dynamically tunable. In the quest for compactness and tunability, flat lenses based on metasurfaces were introduced. However, their dynamic tunability is still limited because their functionality mostly relies upon fixed geometry. In contrast, we put forward an original concept of a tunable Optical Magnetic Lens (OML) that focuses photon beams using a subwavelength-thin layer of a magneto-optical material in a non-unif…
We theoretically investigate the interaction between the conductive graphene layer with the dual-spectral electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) metamaterial and achieve independent amplitude modulation of the transmission peaks in terahertz (THz) regime. The dual-spectral EIT resonance results from the strong near field coupling effects between the bright cut wire resonator (CWR) in the middle and two dark double-split ring resonators (DSRRs) on the two sides. By integrating monolayer graphene under the dark mode resonators, the two transmission peaks of the EIT resonance can exhibit …
We propose a scheme for efficient cavity-enhanced nonlinear THz generation via difference-frequency generation (DFG) processes using a triply resonant system based on photonic crystal cavities. We show that high nonlinear overlap can be achieved by coupling a THz cavity to a doubly-resonant, dual-polarization near-infrared (e.g. telecom band) photonic-crystal nanobeam cavity, allowing the mixing of three mutually orthogonal fundamental cavity modes through a chi(2) nonlinearity. We demonstrate through coupled-mode theory that complete depletion of the pump frequency - i.e., quantum-limited con…
A one-dimensional photonic-crystal (PC) cavity with nanoholes is proposed for extremely enhancing the THz electric fields by utilizing the electromagnetic (EM) boundary conditions, where both slot effect (for the perpendicular component of the electric displacement field) and anti-slot effect (for the parallel component of the electric field) contribute to the considerable field enhancement. The EM energy density can be enhanced in the high refractive index material by a factor of (εh/εl)^2, where εh and εl are the permittivities of the high and low refractive index materials, respectively. Co…
We suggest an indirect method of detection of photons with zero projection of spin mediated by emission of terahertz photons. This terahertz source is based on a system of microcavity exciton polaritons in the regime of polariton BEC formation when the cavity photons acquire an effective mass being localised in the cavity and therefore receive the third spin degree of freedom (corresponding to the longitudinal polarization with chirality l = 0). The optical transitions can occur between two polariton ground states based on the light-hole and heavy-hole excitons, respectively, accompanied by th…
The efficient amplification and lasing of electromagnetic radiation at terahertz (THz) frequencies is a non-trivial task achieved mainly by quantum cascade laser configurations with limited tunability and narrowband functionality. There is a strong need of compact and efficient THz electromagnetic sources with reconfigurable operation in a broad frequency range. Photoexcited graphene can act as the gain medium to produce coherent radiation at low THz frequencies but its response is very weak due to its ultrathin thickness. In this work, we demonstrate an alternative design to achieve efficient…
We present an electrically switchable graphene terahertz (THz) modulator with a tunable-by-design optical bandwidth and we exploit it to compensate the cavity dispersion of a quantum cascade laser (QCL). Electrostatic gating is achieved by a metal-grating used as a gate electrode, with an HfO2/AlOx gate dielectric on top. This is patterned on a polyimide layer, which acts as a quarter wave resonance cavity, coupled with an Au reflector underneath. We get 90% modulation depth of the intensity, combined with a 20 kHz electrical bandwidth in the 1.9 _ 2.7 THz range. We then integrate our modulato…
It is commonly believed that weak light-matter interactions in low-mobility graphene dramatically limits tunability of graphene-based optoelectronic devices, such as tunable absorbers or switches. In this paper, we develop and use a simple circuit model to understand absorption in graphene sheets. In particular, we show that light interacts weakly also with very high-mobility graphene sheets and propose systematic design means to overcome these problems. The results have allowed us to demonstrate in the terahertz band that perfect absorption with excellent electrical tunability can be achieved…
The ideal laser source for the emerging research field of nonlinear Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy should offer radiation with a large versatility and deliver both ultra-intense multi-octave spanning single-cycle pulses and user-selectable multi-cycle pulses at narrow linewidth. The absence of such a table-top source has hampered advances in numerous THz disciplines including imaging, nonlinear photonics and spectroscopy, selective out-of-equilibrium excitation of condensed matter and quantum systems. Here we introduce a highly versatile table-top THz laser platform providing single-cycle GV/m t…
