Publications

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Nanoscale structuring of optical materials leads to modification of their properties and can be used for improving efficiencies of photonic devices and for enabling new functionalities. In ultrafast optoelectronic switches for generation and detection of terahertz (THz) radiation, incorporation of nanostructures allows us to overcome inherent limitations of photoconductive materials. We propose and demonstrate a nanostructured photoconductive THz detector for sampling highly localized THz fields, down to the level of λ/150. The nanostructure that consists of an array of optical nanoantennas and a distributed Bragg reflector forms a hybrid cavity, which traps optical gate pulses within the photoconductive layer. The effect of photon trapping is observed as enhanced absorption at a designed wavelength. This optically thin photoconductive THz detector allows us to detect highly confined evanescent THz fields coupled through a deeply subwavelength aperture as small as 2 μm (λ/150 at 1 THz). By monolithically integrating the THz detector with apertures ranging from 2 to 5 μm we realize higher spatial resolution and higher sensitivity in aperture-type THz near-field microscopy and THz time-domain spectroscopy.

We have performed frequency locking of a dual, forward reverse emitting third-order distributed feedback quantum cascade laser (QCL) at 3.5 THz. By using both directions of THz emission in combination with two gas cells and two power detectors, we can for the first time perform frequency stabilization, while monitor the frequency locking quality independently. We also characterize how the use of a less sensitive pyroelectric detector can influence the quality of frequency locking, illustrating experimentally that the sensitivity of the detectors is crucial. Using both directions of terahertz (THz) radiation has a particular advantage for the application of a QCL as a local oscillator, where radiation from one side can be used for frequency/phase stabilization, leaving the other side to be fully utilized as a local oscillator to pump a mixer.

We have studied the cyclotron mobility of a Landau-quantized two-dimensional electron gas as a function of temperature (0.4 --100 K) at a fixed magnetic field (1.25 T) using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy in a sample with a low frequency mobility of μ_dc = 3.6 x 10⁶ cm² V^-1 s^-1 and a carrier concentration of ns = 2 x 10₆ cm^-2. The low temperature mobility in this sample results from both impurity scattering and acoustic deformation potential scattering, with μ$-1\atop{CR}$ ≈ (2.1 x 10⁵ cm² V^-1 s^-1)^-1 + (3.8 x 10^-8 V sK^-1 cm^-2 x T)^-1 at low temperatures. Above 50 K, the cyclotron oscillations show a strong reduction in both the oscillation amplitude and lifetime that is dominated by the contribution due to polar optical phonons. These results suggest that electron dephasing times as long as ~ 300 ps are possible even at this high lling factor (v = 6:6) in higher mobility samples (> 10⁷ cm² V^-1 s^-1) that have lower impurity concentrations and where the cyclotron mobility at this carrier concentration would be limited by acoustic deformation potential scattering.

Quantum Hall measurements have been performed on high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs (p-type) and (n-type) quantum wells using a Hall/Anti-Hall bar configuration having both inner and outer edges. The potential distribution and the current flow in the bulk can be controlled by the external magnetic field or the driving current. Extreme situations occur at the Quantum Hall states where the current, driven by leads connected to the outer edge, flows exclusively in one half of the sample. In these states, the chemical potential of the inner edge aligns itself with the edge at ground potential. Accumulation and depletion of carriers takes place at the edge whose carriers flow away from the current source.

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Electrostatic gates are of paramount importance for the physics of devices based on high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) since they allow depletion of electrons in selected areas. This field-effect gating enables the fabrication of a wide range of devices such as, for example, quantum point contacts (QPC), electron interferometers and quantum dots. To fabricate these gates, processing is usually performed on the 2DEG material, which is in many cases detrimental to its electron mobility. Here we propose an alternative process which does not require any processing of the 2DEG material other than for the ohmic contacts. This approach relies on processing a separate wafer that is then mechanically mounted on the 2DEG material in a flip-chip fashion. This technique proved successful to fabricate quantum point contacts on both GaAs/AlGaAs materials with both moderate and ultra-high electron mobility.

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Most spin qubit research to date has focused on manipulating single electron spins in quantum dots. However, hole spins are predicted to have some advantages over electron spins, such as reduced coupling to host semiconductor nuclear spins and the ability to control hole spins electrically using the large spin-orbit interaction. Building on recent advances in fabricating high-mobility 2D hole systems in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures at Sandia, we fabricate and characterize single hole transistors in GaAs. We demonstrate p-type double quantum dot devices with few-hole occupation, which could be used to study the physics of individual hole spins and control over coupling between hole spins, looking towards eventual applications in quantum computing. Intentionally left blank

The first application of a commercial Terahertz quantum cascade laser (QCL) system for high resolution spectroscopy of supersonic beams is presented. Here, the QCLs exhibited continuous linear voltage tuning over a 2 GHz range about a center frequency of 3.762 THz with ~1 ppm resolution. A sensitivity of ~1 ppm fractional absorption was measured with a single pass optical system. Multipass operation at the quantum noise limit of the stressed photoconductor detector would produce a 100-fold improvement.

A 2.1 THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) based on a scattering-assisted injection and resonant-phonon depopulation design scheme is demonstrated. The QCL is based on a four-well period implemented in the GaAs/Al_0.15Ga_0.85As material system. The QCL operates up to a heat-sink temperature of 144 K in pulsed-mode, which is considerably higher than that achieved for previously reported THz QCLs operating around the frequency of 2 THz. At 46 K, the threshold current-density was measured as ~ 745 A/cm² with a peak-power output of ~10 mW. Electrically stable operation in a positive differential-resistance regime is achieved by a careful choice of design parameters. The results validate the robustness of scattering-assisted injection schemes for development of low-frequency (ν < 2.5 THz) QCLs.

In this study, we observe dipole resonances in thin conductive carbon micro-fibers by detecting an enhanced electric field in the near-field of a single fiber at terahertz (THz) frequencies. Time-domain analysis of the electric field shows that each fiber sustains resonant current oscillations at the frequency defined by the fiber's length. Strong dependence of the observed resonance frequency and degree of field enhancement on the fibers' conductive properties enable direct non-contact probing of the THz conductivity in single carbon micro-fibers. We find the conductivity of the fibers to be within the range of 1– 5∙10⁴ S/m. This approach is suitable for experimental characterization of individual doped semiconductor resonators for THz metamaterials and devices.

Slope efficiency (SE) is an important performance metric for lasers. In conventional semiconductor lasers, SE can be optimized by careful designs of the facet (or the modulation for DFB lasers) dimension and surface. However, photonic wire lasers intrinsically suffer low SE due to their deep sub-wavelength emitting facets. Inspired by microwave engineering techniques, we show a novel method to extract power from wire lasers using monolithically integrated antennas. These integrated antennas significantly increase the effective radiation area, and consequently enhance the power extraction efficiency. When applied to wire lasers at THz frequency, we achieved the highest single-side slope efficiency (∼450 mW/A) in pulsed mode for DFB lasers at 4 THz and a ∼4x increase in output power at 3 THz compared with a similar structure without antennas. This work demonstrates the versatility of incorporating microwave engineering techniques into laser designs, enabling significant performance enhancements.

Semiconductor strain engineering has become a critical feature of high-performance electronics because of the significant device performance enhancements that it enables. These improvements, which emerge from strain-induced modifications to the electronic band structure, necessitate new ultra-sensitive tools to probe the strain in semiconductors. Here, we demonstrate that minute amounts of strain in thin semiconductor epilayers can be measured using electronic Raman scattering. We applied this strain measurement technique to two different semiconductor alloy systems using coherently strained epitaxial thin films specifically designed to produce lattice-mismatch strains as small as 10 â '4. Comparing our strain sensitivity and signal strength in Al x Ga 1â 'x As with those obtained using the industry-standard technique of phonon Raman scattering, we found that there was a sensitivity improvement of 200-fold and a signal enhancement of 4 × 10 3, thus obviating key constraints in semiconductor strain metrology.

The aluminum concentration dependence of the energies of the direct and indirect bandgaps arising from the Γ and Χ conduction bands are measured at 1.7K in the semiconductor alloy AlxGa1-xAs. The composition at which the bands cross is determined from photoluminescence of samples grown by molecular-beam epitaxy very close to crossover at x ≈ 0.4. The use of resonant laser excitation and the improved sample linewidth allows excitation intensities as low as 10-2 W/cm2, giving a precise determination of the bound exciton transition energies and their Γ and Χ crossover. Photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy is then used to measure the binding energies of the donor-bound excitons and the Γ free exciton binding energy. After correcting for the Γ- and Χ-dependence of these quantities, the crossover of the bandgap is determined to be at x = 0.401 and E = 2.086 eV.

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Two-dimensional hole gases (2DHGs) have attracted recent attention for their unique quantum physics and potential applications in areas including spintronics and quantum computing. However, their properties remain relatively unexplored, motivating the use of different techniques to study them. We used terahertz magneto-optical spectroscopy to investigate the cyclotron resonance frequency in a high mobility 2DHG, revealing a nonlinear dependence on the applied magnetic field. This is shown to be due to the complex non-parabolic valence band structure of the 2DHG, as verified by multiband Landau level calculations. We also find that impurity scattering dominates cyclotron resonance decay in the 2DHG, in contrast with the dominance of superradiant damping in two-dimensional electron gases. Our results shed light on the properties of 2DHGs, motivating further studies of these unique 2D nanosystems.

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A combined experimental-theoretical study of optically pumped nuclear magnetic resonance (OPNMR) has been performed in a GaAs/Al0.1Ga0.9As quantum well film epoxy bonded to a Si substrate with thermally induced biaxial strain. The photon energy dependence of the Ga OPNMR signal was recorded at magnetic fields of 4.9 and 9.4 T at a temperature of 4.8-5.4 K. The data were compared to the nuclear spin polarization calculated from the electronic structure and differential absorption to spin-up and spin-down states of the electron conduction band using a modified k·p model based on the Pidgeon-Brown model. Comparison of theory with experiment facilitated the assignment of features in the OPNMR energy dependence to specific interband Landau level transitions. The results provide insight into how effects of strain and quantum confinement are manifested in optical nuclear polarization in semiconductors.

The dephasing of the Fermi edge singularity excitations in two modulation doped single quantum wells of 12 nm and 18 nm thickness and in-well carrier concentration of ∼4 × 1011 cm-2 was carefully measured using spectrally resolved four-wave mixing (FWM) and two-dimensional Fourier transform (2DFT) spectroscopy. Although the absorption at the Fermi edge is broad at this doping level, the spectrally resolved FWM shows narrow resonances. Two peaks are observed separated by the heavy hole/light hole energy splitting. Temperature dependent "rephasing" (S1) 2DFT spectra show a rapid linear increase of the homogeneous linewidth with temperature. The dephasing rate increases faster with temperature in the narrower 12 nm quantum well, likely due to an increased carrier-phonon scattering rate. The S1 2DFT spectra were measured using co-linear, cross-linear, and co-circular polarizations. Distinct 2DFT lineshapes were observed for co-linear and cross-linear polarizations, suggesting the existence of polarization dependent contributions. The "two-quantum coherence" (S3) 2DFT spectra for the 12 nm quantum well show a single peak for both co-linear and co-circular polarizations.

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