Self-Induced Phase Locking of Terahertz Frequency Combs in a Phase-Sensitive Hyperspectral Near-Field Nanoscope.

Abstract

Chip‐scale, electrically‐pumped terahertz (THz) frequency‐combs (FCs) rely on nonlinear four‐wave‐mixing processes, and have a nontrivial phase relationship between the evenly spaced set of emitted modes. Simultaneous monitoring and manipulation of the intermode phase coherence, without any external seeding or active modulation, is a very demanding task for which there has hitherto been no technological solution. Here, a self‐mixing intermode‐beatnote spectroscopy system is demonstrated, based on THz quantum cascade laser FCs, in which light is back‐scattered from the tip of a scanning near‐field optical‐microscope (SNOM) and the intracavity reinjection monitored. This enables to exploit the sensitivity of FC phase‐coherence to optical feedback and, for the first time, manipulate the amplitude, linewidth and frequency of the intermode THz FC beatnote using the feedback itself. Stable phase‐locked regimes are used to construct a FC‐based hyperspectral, THz s‐SNOM nanoscope. This nanoscope provides 160 nm spatial resolution, coherent detection of multiple phase‐locked modes, and mapping of the THz optical response of nanoscale materials up to 3.5 THz, with noise‐equivalent‐power (NEP) ≈400 pW √Hz−1. This technique can be applied to the entire infrared range, opening up a new approach to hyper‐spectral near‐field imaging with wide‐scale applications in the study of plasmonics and quantum science, inter alia.