Project description:Topological lasers (TLs) have attracted widespread attention due to their mode robustness against perturbations or defects. Among them, electrically pumped TLs have gained extensive research interest due to their advantages of compact size and easy integration. Nevertheless, limited studies on electrically pumped TLs have been reported in the terahertz (THz) and telecom wavelength ranges with relatively low output powers, causing a wide gap between practical applications. Here, we introduce a surface metallic Dirac-vortex cavity (SMDC) design to solve the difficulty of increasing power for electrically pumped TLs in the THz spectral range. Due to the strong coupling between the SMDC and the active region, robust 2D topological defect lasing modes are obtained. More importantly, enough gain and large radiative efficiency provided by the SMDC bring in the increase of the output power to a maximum peak power of 150 mW which demonstrates the practical application potential of electrically pumped TLs.
Project description:Efficiently fabricating a cavity that can achieve strong interactions between terahertz waves and matter would allow researchers to exploit the intrinsic properties due to the long wavelength in the terahertz waveband. Here we show a terahertz detector embedded in a Tamm cavity with a record Q value of 1017 and a bandwidth of only 469 MHz for direct detection. The Tamm-cavity detector is formed by embedding a substrate with an Nb5N6 microbolometer detector between an Si/air distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and a metal reflector. The resonant frequency can be controlled by adjusting the thickness of the substrate layer. The detector and DBR are fabricated separately, and a large pixel-array detector can be realized by a very simple assembly process. This versatile cavity structure can be used as a platform for preparing high-performance terahertz devices and opening up the study of the strong interactions between terahertz waves and matter.
Project description:High-performance uncooled millimetre and terahertz wave detectors are required as a building block for a wide range of applications. The state-of-the-art technologies, however, are plagued by low sensitivity, narrow spectral bandwidth, and complicated architecture. Here, we report semiconductor surface plasmon enhanced high-performance broadband millimetre and terahertz wave detectors which are based on nanogroove InSb array epitaxially grown on GaAs substrate for room temperature operation. By making a nanogroove array in the grown InSb layer, strong millimetre and terahertz wave surface plasmon polaritons can be generated at the InSb-air interfaces, which results in significant improvement in detecting performance. A noise equivalent power (NEP) of 2.2 × 10-14 W Hz-1/2 or a detectivity (D*) of 2.7 × 1012 cm Hz1/2 W-1 at 1.75 mm (0.171 THz) is achieved at room temperature. By lowering the temperature to the thermoelectric cooling available 200 K, the corresponding NEP and D* of the nanogroove device can be improved to 3.8 × 10-15 W Hz-1/2 and 1.6 × 1013 cm Hz1/2 W-1, respectively. In addition, such a single device can perform broad spectral band detection from 0.9 mm (0.330 THz) to 9.4 mm (0.032 THz). Fast responses of 3.5 µs and 780 ns are achieved at room temperature and 200 K, respectively. Such high-performance millimetre and terahertz wave photodetectors are useful for wide applications such as high capacity communications, walk-through security, biological diagnosis, spectroscopy, and remote sensing. In addition, the integration of plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures paves a way for realizing high performance and multifunctional long-wavelength optoelectrical devices.
Project description:In this paper, we provide a theoretical and numerical study of the acoustic properties of infinite and semi-infinite superlattices made out of graphene-semiconductor bilayers. In addition to the band structure, we emphasize the existence and behavior of localized and resonant acoustic modes associated with the free surface of such structures. These modes are polarized in the sagittal plane, defined by the incident wavevector and the normal to the layers. The surface modes are obtained from the peaks of the density of states, either inside the bulk bands or inside the minigaps of the superlattice. In these structures, the two directions of vibrations (longitudinal and transverse) are coupled giving rise to two bulk bands associated with the two polarizations of the waves. The creation of the free surface of the superlattice induces true surface localized modes inside the terahertz acoustic forbidden gaps, but also pseudo-surface modes which appear as well-defined resonances inside the allowed bands of the superlattice. Despite the low thickness of the graphene layer, and though graphene is a gapless material, when it is inserted periodically in a semiconductor, it allows the opening of wide gaps for all values of the wave vector k// (parallel to the interfaces). Numerical illustrations of the band structures and surface modes are given for graphene-Si superlattices, and the surface layer can be either Si or graphene. These surface acoustic modes can be used to realize liquid or bio-sensors graphene-based phononic crystal operating in the THz frequency domain.
Project description:High-performance active terahertz modulators as the indispensable core components are of great importance for the next generation communication technology. However, they currently suffer from the tradeoff between modulation depth and speed. Here, we introduce two-dimensional (2D) tellurium (Te) nanofilms with the unique structure as a new class of optically controlled terahertz modulators and demonstrate their integrated heterojunctions can successfully improve the device performances to the optimal and applicable levels among the existing all-2D broadband modulators. Further photoresponse measurements confirm the significant impact of the stacking order. We first clarify the direction of the substrate-induced electric field through first-principles calculations and uncover the unusual interaction mechanism in the photoexcited carrier dynamics associated with the charge transfer and interlayer exciton recombination. This advances the fundamental and applicative research of Te nanomaterials in high-performance terahertz optoelectronics.
Project description:This paper presents an on-chip device that can perform gigahertz-rate amplitude modulation and switching of broadband terahertz electromagnetic waves. The operation of the device is based on the interaction of confined THz waves in a novel slot waveguide with an electronically tunable two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) that controls the loss of the THz wave propagating through this waveguide. A prototype device is fabricated which shows THz intensity modulation of 96% at 0.25 THz carrier frequency with low insertion loss and device length as small as 100 microns. The demonstrated modulation cutoff frequency exceeds 14 GHz indicating potential for the high-speed modulation of terahertz waves. The entire device operates at room temperature with low drive voltage (<2 V) and zero DC power consumption. The device architecture has potential for realization of the next generation of on-chip modulators and switches at THz frequencies.
Project description:We fabricated a lateral photovoltaic device for use as infrared to terahertz (THz) detectors by chemically depositing PbS films on titanium substrates. We discussed the material properties of PbS films grown on glass with varying deposition conditions. PbS was deposited on Ti substrates and by taking advantage of the Ti/PbS Schottky junction, we discussed the photocurrent transients as well as the room temperature spectrum response measured by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. Our photovoltaic PbS device operates at room temperature for wavelength ranges up to 50 µm, which is in the terahertz region, making the device highly applicable in many fields.
Project description:High-performance quantum memory for quantized states of light is a prerequisite building block of quantum information technology. Despite great progresses of optical quantum memories based on interactions of light and atoms, physical features of these memories still cannot satisfy requirements for applications in practical quantum information systems, since all of them suffer from trade-off between memory efficiency and excess noise. Here, we report a high-performance cavity-enhanced electromagnetically-induced-transparency memory with warm atomic cell in which a scheme of optimizing the spatial and temporal modes based on the time-reversal approach is applied. The memory efficiency up to 67 ± 1% is directly measured and a noise level close to quantum noise limit is simultaneously reached. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the average fidelities for a set of input coherent states with different phases and amplitudes within a Gaussian distribution have exceeded the classical benchmark fidelities. Thus the realized quantum memory platform has been capable of preserving quantized optical states, and is ready to be applied in quantum information systems, such as distributed quantum logic gates and quantum-enhanced atomic magnetometry.
Project description:We propose a method for broadband long-wavelength photodetection using the nonlinear Hall effect in noncentrosymmetric quantum materials. The inherently quadratic relation between transverse current and input voltage at zero magnetic field is used to rectify the incident terahertz or infrared electric field into a direct current, without invoking any diode. Our photodetector operates at zero external bias with fast response speed and has zero threshold voltage. Remarkably, the intrinsic current responsivity due to the Berry curvature mechanism is a material property independent of the incident frequency or the scattering rate, which can be evaluated from first-principles electronic structure calculations. We identify the Weyl semimetal NbP and ferroelectric semiconductor GeTe for terahertz/infrared photodetection with large current responsivity without external bias.
Project description:Terahertz (THz) technology is becoming a spotlight of scientific interest due to its promising myriad applications including imaging, spectroscopy, industry control and communication. However, one of the major bottlenecks for advancing this field is due to lack of well-developed solid-state sources and detectors operating at THz gap which serves to mark the boundary between electronics and photonics. Here, we demonstrate exceptionally wide tunable terahertz plasma-wave excitation can be realized in the channel of micrometer-level graphene field effect transistors (FET). Owing to the intrinsic high propagation velocity of plasma waves (>~10(8) cm/s) and Dirac band structure, the plasma-wave graphene-FETs yield promising prospects for fast sensing, THz detection, etc. The results indicate that the multiple guide-wave resonances in the graphene sheets can lead to the deep sub-wavelength confinement of terahertz wave and with Q-factor orders of magnitude higher than that of conventional 2DEG system at room temperature. Rooted in this understanding, the performance trade-off among signal attenuation, broadband operation, on-chip integrability can be avoided in future THz smart photonic network system by merging photonics and electronics. The unique properties presented can open up the exciting routes to compact solid state tunable THz detectors, filters, and wide band subwavelength imaging based on the graphene-FETs.