Efficient optical-to-terahertz conversion in large-area InGaAs photo-Dember emitters with increased indium content

In this Letter, optical-to-terahertz (THz) conversion of 800 nm femtosecond laser pulses in large-area bias-free InGaAs emitters based on photo-Dember (PD) and lateral photo-Dember (LPD) effects is experimentally investigated. We use metamorphic buffers to grow sub-micrometer thick In𝑥Ga1−𝑥As layers with indium mole fractions 𝑥=0.37, 0.53, and 0.70 on a GaAs substrate. A strong enhancement of THz output energy with an increase of indium content is observed. On the surface of the sample providing the strongest emission (𝑥=0.7), we have fabricated a 1.5cm² area of asymmetrically shaped metallic grating for LPD emission. This LPD emitter allows achieving high conversion efficiency of 0.24⋅10−3 and a broad generation bandwidth of up to 6 THz. We also demonstrate that there is no significant difference in the conversion efficiency when operating at 1 and 200 kHz repetition rates. Our results show that large-area LPD emitters give a convenient, competitive way to generate intense high-repetition-rate THz pulses.