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Terahertz emission enhancement of GaAs-based photoconductive antennas via the nanodecoration of their surface by means of pulsed-laser-deposition of gold nanoparticles

Authors :
E. Isgandarov
L. Pichon
X. Ropagnol
M. A. El Khakani
T. Ozaki
Source :
Journal of Applied Physics. 133
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
AIP Publishing, 2023.

Abstract

We report a systematic study of free-space terahertz (THz) emission from photoconductive antennas (PCAs) nanodecorated with gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) deposited by using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. H-shaped dipole micro-structured PCAs fabricated on semi-insulating GaAs substrates were decorated under various PLD conditions. Thus, by increasing the number of laser ablation pulses (NLP) of the Au target, both the average size of Au-NPs and the surface loading of PCAs increase. Compared with non-decorated PCAs, those decorated with Au-NPs exhibit significant enhancement in the radiated THz pulse amplitude. A maximum enhancement of ∼2.3 was achieved at NLP = 1250. Under this optimal NLP condition, not only is the average Au-NP size (of ∼15 nm) favorable for light absorption via localized surface plasmons, but also the inter-distance between NPs, the light reflectance, and facilitated transport of photocarriers, all combine to yield a stronger THz field emission. For higher NLP (≥2000), NPs coalesce and tend to form continuous film NPs, which not only significantly limits the light scattering toward the GaAs underlying substrate, but also electrically shorts the PCA. Finally, the Au-NP decoration of GaAs PCAs was also found to improve their overall thermal conductivity, making them much more thermally stable than their non-decorated counterparts.

Subjects

Subjects :
General Physics and Astronomy

Details

ISSN :
10897550 and 00218979
Volume :
133
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of Applied Physics
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........63cf822dab3353e6be97eea0548ae648