Prof Michael Johnston

Abstract:

The generation of terahertz (THz) transients in photoconductive emitters has been studied by varying the spatial extent and density of the optically excited photocarriers in asymmetrically excited, biased low-temperature-grown GaAs antenna structures. We find a pronounced dependence of the THz pulse intensity and broadband (>6.0 THz) spectral distribution on the pump excitation density and simulate this with a three-dimensional carrier dynamics model. We attribute the observed variation in THz emission to changes in the strength of the screening field.

Abstract:

The time-resolved conductivity of isolated GaAs nanowires is investigated by optical-pump terahertz-probe time-domain spectroscopy. The electronic response exhibits a pronounced surface plasmon mode that forms within 300 fs before decaying within 10 ps as a result of charge trapping at the nanowire surface. The mobility is extracted using the Drude model for a plasmon and found to be remarkably high, being roughly one-third of that typical for bulk GaAs at room temperature. © 2007 American Chemical Society.

Abstract:

We report on the construction, optical alignment and performance of a receiver which is capable of recording the full polarization state of coherent terahertz radiation. The photoconductive detector was fabricated on InP which had been implanted with Fe(+) ions. The device operated successfully when it was gated with near infrared femtosecond pulses from either a Ti:sapphire laser oscillator or a 1 kHz regenerative laser amplifier. When illuminated with terahertz radiation from a typical photoconductive source, the optimized device had a signal to noise figure of 100:1 with a usable spectral bandwidth of up to 4 THz. The device was shown to be very sensitive to terahertz polarization, being able to resolve changes in polarization of 0.34 degrees. Additionally, we have demonstrated the usefulness of this device for (i) polarization sensitive terahertz spectroscopy, by measuring the birefringence of quartz and (ii) terahertz emission experiments, by measuring the polarization dependence of radiation generated by optical rectification in (110)-ZnTe.

Abstract:

We have investigated the conductivity of equilibrium and photoexcited electrons in nanoporous indium phosphide (InP) of various porosities and of two orientations: (100) and (111). We observed an enhanced transmission through the nanoporous samples compared with bulk InP, resulting from a suppression of the conductivity by the pores. The frequency-dependent conductivity was extracted numerically from the transmission data. We examined the dynamical conductivity of photoexcited carriers using optical-pump THz-probe spectroscopy. After the rapid photoexcitation of electrons, the timeresolved conductivity was observed to decay slowly, with carrier recombination lifetimes exceeding 1 ns for all (100)- and (111)-oriented samples.

Abstract:

Optical-pump/terahertz-probe spectroscopy and terahertz emission spectroscopy were used to measure the conductivity and surface electric field change resulting from passivating the surface of GaAs. An enhanced terahertz radiation generation from passivated photoconductive antenna was observed. © 2006 Optical Society of America.