Group IV THz large area emitter based on GeSn alloy.

Abstract

THz photoconductive emitters based on III-V materials have demonstrated excellent THz radiation properties, enabling many unique applications. However, the incompatibility with the complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) foundry fabrication process and the challenging growth condition hampers THz photoconductive emitters from large-scale production. To address this limitation, we proposed the GeSn alloy as the photoconductive material candidate through the CMOS-compatible epitaxy instrument. The GeSn photoconductor features a 518 cm2/V-s mobility and a 7187 cm-1 absorption coefficient at the wavelength of 1560 nm, resulting in sufficiently ultrafast photocurrent generation for THz radiation. As a result, the GeSn THz emitter provides over a bandwidth of 2 THz and a 40 dB signal-to-noise ratio, which shows its potential in realizing mass-producible, cost-effective THz integrated systems with CMOS technology.