Optical Damage Threshold and THz Generation Efficiency of (Fe,CoFeB)/(Ta,Pt) Spintronic Emitters

Abstract

THz pulses are generated from femtosecond pulse-excited ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic spintronic heterostructures via inverse spin Hall effect. The highest possible THz signal strength from spintronic THz emitters is limited by the optical damage threshold of the corresponding heterostructures at the excitation wavelength. For the thickness-optimized spintronic heterostructure, the THz generation efficiency does not saturate with the excitation fluence even up till the damage threshold. Bilayer (Fe, CoFeB)/(Pt, Ta) based FM/NM spintronic heterostructures have been studied for an optimized performance for THz generation when pumped by sub-50 fs amplified laser pulses at 800 nm. Among them, CoFeB/Pt is the best combination for an efficient THz source. The optimized FM/NM spintronic heterostructure on a quartz substrate, having α-phase Ta as the nonmagnetic layer, shows the highest damage threshold as compared to those with Pt, irrespective of their generation efficiency. The damage threshold of the Fe/Ta heterostructure on a quartz substrate is ~85 GW/cm2.