Terahertz control of photoluminescence emission in few-layer InSe

A promising route for the development of new technology is to use terahertz radiation to modulate the optical properties of semiconductors. Here we demonstrate the dynamical control of photoluminescence (PL) emission in few-layer InSe using picosecond terahertz pulses. We observe a strong PL quenching (up to 50%) after the arrival of the terahertz pulse followed by a reversible recovery of the emission on the time scale of 50ps at T =10K.Microscopic calculations reveal that the origin of the photoluminescence quenching is the terahertz absorption by photo-excited carriers: this leads to a heating of the carrier distribution that reduces the overlap of the hole and electron wavefunctions in the proximity of the band edges and, therefore, the luminescence. By numerically evaluating the Boltzmann equation, we are able to clarify the individual roles of optical and acoustic phonons in the subsequent cooling process. The same PL quenching mechanism is expected in other van der Waals semiconductors and the effect will be particularly strong for materials with low carrier masses and long carrier relaxation time, which is the case for InSe. This work gives a solid background for the development of opto-electronic applications based on InSe, such as THz detectors and optical modulators.