Extremely Nonperturbative Nonlinearities in GaAs Driven by Atomically Strong Terahertz Fields in Gold Metamaterials

C. Lange, T. Maag, M. Hohenleutner, S. Baierl, O. Schubert, E. R. J. Edwards, D. Bougeard, G. Woltersdorf, and R. Huber
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 227401 – Published 26 November 2014
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Abstract

Terahertz near fields of gold metamaterials resonant at a frequency of 0.88 THz allow us to enter an extreme limit of nonperturbative ultrafast terahertz electronics: Fields reaching a ponderomotive energy in the keV range are exploited to drive nondestructive, quasistatic interband tunneling and impact ionization in undoped bulk GaAs, injecting electron-hole plasmas with densities in excess of 1019cm3. This process causes bright luminescence at energies up to 0.5 eV above the band gap and induces a complete switch-off of the metamaterial resonance accompanied by self-amplitude-modulation of transmitted few-cycle terahertz transients. Our results pave the way towards highly nonlinear terahertz optics and optoelectronic nanocircuitry with subpicosecond switching times.

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  • Received 18 April 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.227401

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

C. Lange1,*, T. Maag1, M. Hohenleutner1, S. Baierl1, O. Schubert1, E. R. J. Edwards2, D. Bougeard1, G. Woltersdorf2, and R. Huber1

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany
  • 2Department of Physics, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany

  • *christoph.lange@physik.uni-regensburg.de

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Issue

Vol. 113, Iss. 22 — 28 November 2014

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