Tuning THz emission properties of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ intrinsic Josephson junction stacks by charge carrier injection

Abstract

We report on doping and undoping experiments of terahertz (THz) emitting intrinsic Josephson junction stacks, where the change in charge carrier concentration is achieved by heavy current injection. The experiments were performed on stand-alone structures fabricated from a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O single crystal near optimal doping. The stacks contained about 930 intrinsic Josephson junctions. On purpose, the doping and undoping experiments were performed over only a modest range of charge carrier concentrations, changing the critical temperature of the stack by less than 1 K. We show that both undoping and doping is feasible also for the large intrinsic Josephson junction stacks used for THz generation. Even moderate changes in doping introduce large changes in the THz emission properties of the stacks. The highest emission power was achieved after doping a pristine sample.