Enhancement mechanism of terahertz radiation from coherent longitudinal optical phonons in undoped GaAs/n-type GaAs epitaxial structures

Abstract

We have investigated the characteristics of monochromatic terahertz electromagnetic waves emitted from coherent longitudinal optical (LO) phonons in undoped GaAs/n-type GaAs epitaxial structures with various thicknesses, which range from 200 nm to 1200 nm, of the undoped GaAs layer. The terahertz waves were measured at room temperature using an optical gating method with a photoconductive dipole antenna. It was found that the intensity of the terahertz waves markedly depends on the thickness of the undoped GaAs layer. The analysis of Franz-Keldysh oscillations observed with photoreflectance spectroscopy demonstrates that the built-in electric field strength in the undoped GaAs layer, which results from the Fermi-level pinning at the surface, increases from 6.1 kV/cm to 28.4 kV/cm with a decrease in the thickness. It was revealed that the amplitude of the terahertz wave is proportional to the electric field strength in the undoped GaAs layer. This fact indicates that the efficiency of the terahertz radiation is dominated by the initial polarization of the LO phonons induced by the built-in electric field, which provides us a simple strategy for the enhancement of the terahertz radiation from the coherent LO phonons.