Band Engineering of ErAs:InGaAlBiAs Nanocomposite Materials for Terahertz Photoconductive Switches Pumped at 1550 nm
Date
2024-04-18
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Advanced Functional Materials
Abstract
Terahertz technology has the potential to have a large impact in myriad fields, such as biomedical science, spectroscopy, and communications. Making these applications practical requires efficient, reliable, and low-cost devices. Photoconductive switches (PCS), devices capable of emitting and detecting terahertz pulses, are a technology that needs more efficiency when working at telecom wavelength excitation (1550 nm) to exploit the advantages this wavelength offers. ErAs:InGaAs is a semiconductor nanocomposite working at this energy; however, high dark resistivity is challenging due to a high electron concentration as the Fermi level lies in the conduction band. To increase dark resistivity, ErAs:InGaAlBiAs material is used as the active material in a PCS detecting Terahertz pulses. ErAs nanoparticles reduce the carrier lifetime to subpicosecond values required for short temporal resolution, while ErAs pins the effective Fermi level in the host material bandgap. Unlike InGaAs, InGaAlBiAs offers enough freedom for band engineering to have a material compatible with a 1550 nm pump and a Fermi level deep in the bandgap, meaning low carrier concentration and high dark resistivity. Band engineering is possible by incorporating aluminum to lift the conduction band edge to the Fermi level and bismuth to keep a bandgap compatible with 1550 nm excitation.
Description
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: W. Acuna, W. Wu, J. Bork, M. F. Doty, M. B. Jungfleisch, L. Gundlach, J. M. O. Zide, Band Engineering of ErAs:InGaAlBiAs Nanocomposite Materials for Terahertz Photoconductive Switches Pumped at 1550 nm. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2024, 2401853. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202401853, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202401853. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited. © 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH. This article will be embargoed until 04/18/2025.
Keywords
epitaxial, pentanary, spectroscopy, terahertz
Citation
W. Acuna, W. Wu, J. Bork, M. F. Doty, M. B. Jungfleisch, L. Gundlach, J. M. O. Zide, Band Engineering of ErAs:InGaAlBiAs Nanocomposite Materials for Terahertz Photoconductive Switches Pumped at 1550 nm. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2024, 2401853. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202401853